DON JOHNSON LONTOC

a r c h i t e c t u r e + p l a n n i n g

p o r t f o l i o

CONTENT

Urban Policy Design: Comparison between Copenhagen’s Finger Plan and Milano’s border areas

Policy Analysis & Evaluation:BikeMi Sharing System in Metro Milano

Local Economic Development Impact:Bicocca University in Milano

Metropolitan Governance:he Role of Private Sectors in Metropolitan Govern-ance

ABOUT + CV

I am a critical thinker, person-oriented and versatile individual who have had less than a year of work experience as a graduate architect in a Filipino-basedinternational company with good technical skills in creative architec-tural design and drafting , and strong graphical communication. More so, I am an urban planning graduate in Politecnico di Milano with good capabilities in handling issues of urban design, urban policies and physi-cal and strategic planning in dierent scales.

Work

Junior Designer and Innovations R + D unit assistantPalafox Associates. Manila, e PhilippinesMay- Sept 2011

Internship

Environmental Planning assistant (Internship)Urban Simulation Laboratory ‘Fausto Curti’. Milan, ItalyApril-June 2013

Architectural Assistant Part II (Internship)Palafox Associates. Manila, e PhilippinesMay – June 2010

Architectural Assistant Part I (Internship)Jonathan Gan + Associates

Education

Master of Science in Urban Planning and Policy DesignMajor in regional, urban and environmental planning2 year international program taught entirely in EnglishPolitecnico di Milano- Milan, ItalySept 2011- Dec 2013

Erasmus exchange programmeEuropean Tack: Tackling Metropolitan Challenges inEurope atInstitut d’urbanisme du Paris(Planning Institute of Paris)- Paris, FranceOct 2012- Feb 2013

Bachelor of Science in Architecture5 year program taught in EnglishFar Eastern University- Manila, e PhilippinesJune 2006-March 2011

Skills

Computer Aided Design and Drafting

Drafting: AutoCAD; Sketchup; basics of Revitand ArchGIS

Graphics: Adobe Creative suites (Adobe Photoshop;Adobe Illustrator, Adobe In design); HDR ; Corel Drawand AutoPano.

Productivity: Microsoft Oce

Contact:

Current location: Manila, PhilippinesDate of Birth: May 22 1989Email: donjohnsonlontoc@gmail.com;don.lontoc@mail.polimi.itMobile #: +639998465783

Useful links

http://issuu.com/donjohnsonlontoc7

http://www.polimi.it/en/http://urbanisme.u-pec.fr/www.feu.edu.ph

http://www.labsimurb.polimi.it/http://wwwpalafoxassociates.com/

Projected field Intervenion II

project field IntervenionI

Projected fieldintervenion II

Projected fieldintervenion I

The three idenifible subprojects could be said to disincive but intrinsically interrelated.

idenify these three subprojects as three puzzle boxes that create less significance unless unified and properly ‘fited together’.

Creaive park Recreaive park Energy park made permeable and unified

Slow Mobilityfuncions operate together to give a ’sense of meaning’ to the integrated Agroindustrial Park.

Creaive ParkGreen Energy Park

Recreaive ParkSlow mobility network

Urban Policy Design studio:Comparison between Milan and Copenhagen’s pe-ripheral areas

THE LOOP CITYIntroduction

Today, the conceptualization of the city has changed and so as its reality in terms of both functions and relations. he contemporary city presents enormous challenges and opportunities that ofer us a shit from a city as a spatially bounded entity and well deined relationships and populations. Cities to-day have shown dynamics and characteristics that include a diminishing inluence of boundaries and centres, out-growth to a metropolitan scale swal-lowing up neighboring towns (oten enabled by sprawl), an intensity of movement and a diverse use and characterization of space. So are its fragmenta-tion and an orientation toward greater physical and technological mobility that transcend the visible and legible.

he new trends of urbanization and urban change and the scaling up of cities in into mega regions make the issue of borders and peripheries a daunt-ing task for professionals and intellectuals within the planning ield and the ability to deal with this task will deine the habitability of our cities tomorrow. To this end, the loop city project of Copenhagen, with its focus on developing the former industrial sites and borders, provide us a starting point for reimag-ining the borders, the applicability and of strategies considering contextual issues.

across diferent areas and countries. Could it be that a similar scenario could be adopted for the Milan urban region based on its contextual and phenomenological signiicance.

2. Milan Loop: Reasoning through the strategies

One can say that the attention to the borders presents the greatest opportunity for considering Milan around the idea of the loop city. Each of the six border areas ofers its own unique object that could be considered and developed in relation with the other areas to create the kind of metropolitan loop able to create a centre less but functional region which is sustainable, habita-ble, attractive, eicient and integrative. In this section, we underscore our reasoning of the strategies we de-veloped for our area and how it could be replicated by the other areas in light of a larger vision of a loop city.

hree main strategies were deined including produc-tivity and recreation, complementarity and porosity with the main project being the agroindustrial park and its slow mobility links with the urban centres. he border area of Milan Settimo Milanese is an area de-ined by a rich landscape of agricultural cultivation of-ten accompanied by canals, parks, water bodies which are of recreational signiicance. his area is to be de-veloped through enhanced cultivation, marketing and processing of agricultural produce. he processing of these produce could also be linked to sustainable energy production such as biomass mass. Fortunately, the southern and certain parts of the western and north are also deined by productive landscapes of either parks, cultivation or industrial platforms that could be connected to create a kind of ‘productive loop’ for the urban region.

Copenhagen’s Finger Plan Milano’s border plan

Again, the second strategy focuses on porosity. In this sense, how diferent parts of the territory could be connected to bring the urban to the rural and rural to the urban. his primarily focuses on green infrastructure through the continuity of green spaces and slow mobility for the territory. It is hard to imagine a loop without a very a connective link around the borders for ease of movement and con-tinuity. In this regards, in line with the project of the ‘REGI VERDE’, our territory could be made more permeable and porous not only for accessi-bility but also recreation. In this sense, all the other border areas could also be linked to the proposed ‘REGI VERDE’ and also slow mobility patterns introduced around the bor-ders. his can create a porous loop that fundamen-tally builds on infrastructure in terms of slow mo-bility and networks.

he inal strategy was complementarity of functions. Even functions. Even though we envisage a new bor-der centrality deined by recreation, production and leisure there was also the need to promote a function-al interact with the urbanized area

his we considered as a way to complement each oth-er by connecting functions that support each other. In light of the loop strategy, complementarity we imagine will be a good strategy to promote interaction among the diferent border areas through the diferent func-tions that characterize these areas. Considering, how the requaliication of cascinas and development parks could be complementary with the Rho border area by connecting it with the EXPO 2015 schematic repre-sentation of the strategies and the Loop City.

3. Conclusion

One can think of these based on the boundary ob-jects that deine the border areas. For instance, we can imagine a productive loop (cultivation and agro processing), an energy loop (biomass and sustainable energy), a green loop (parks and open spaces), and mobility (slow mobility and transport) among others. his could be developed on the borders in a connec-tive way that creates a metropolitan border centrality of functions and relations. However, it is important to note the multi and inter governance challenges that confront such a scale of intervention. Stakeholder in-volvement, municipal collaboration and partnerships will have and need to be fostered to achieve such a vision for the urban region

BikeMi: Bike sharing system in MilanoPublic Policy

Milano has been experiencing traic congestion and pollution over the years, despite the fact that it already had the congestion charge “Ecopass” program back in 2008, still the city is experienc-ing high air pollution over traic cclogged streets within the city. Eventually, Milan municipality has created “BikeMi” system to decrease its dilemmas in congestion and pollution. he BikeMi policy aimed to provide a practical alternative means for public and private transportation users, and to re-duce air pollution which brought by the congestion of streets within the city.

Goal A:

First, if we introduce bikesharing system in Milano then it could be a practical alternative means of transportation for private users, and public com-muters

Citizens are both the target group and beneiciaries of the policy; however, organizer of BikeMi policy (City of Milan, ATM and Clean Channel) is also a beneiciary.

OutputOutput: Bike “BikeMi” stations within 300 meters from each other. Output efectiveness indicator: he efectiveness of the output will be achieved when public and private transportation users will able to use all BikeMi sta-tions.

OutcomeOutcome: Increase of alternative means for public transportation and decline of private carusage.Outcome efectiveness indicator: he efectiveness of the output has to determine the service statistics

Urban Policy

Policy Analysis

Local Development and Territorial Enhancement: Private-Public partnership: a driver for economic competitiveness? he case of University of Milan-Bicocca

Methodology

We have supported our speciic analysis on the topic according to the factual information that have been developed in previous researches about Bicocca as a project in itself: Impact on the socio-spatial hierar-chy of the Bicocca Project in Milan. (April 21 2007) and PhD Pianiicazione Territoriale e Sviluppo Lo-cale :Progetto Bicocca Pettenati, Giacomo (2006). he questions conducted by Bicocca as a project in itself: Impact on the socio-spatial hierarchy of the Bicocca Project in Milan. (April 21 2007) were used as factual basis on how people around the city re-acted to the project.

In relation on the statistics we have used previous researches as well about the Costa, Giuliana and Sa-batinelli, Stefania. (2011). Welfare Innovation at lo-cal level in favour of cohesion. WILCO Publication no. 23. Politecnico Di Milano and the oicial web-site of National Institute of Statistics in Italy and the Ministry of Education, University and Research to gather more accurate and up to date statistics. he combination of this analysis has helped us to answer the main question of our paper: Private-Public part-nership: a driver for economic competitiveness?

Re-shaping Milan as a “City of Knowledge” Milan: Once an industrial city Milan is the capital of Lombardy region and accord-ing to ISTAT (Italian national Institute of Statistics, 2008) it currently has a population of 4.3 million in-cluding its metropolitan area. It was once known as the biggest industrial city in Italy in 1900s with many

diferent industrial sectors. Widely known industri-al companies were originated and had been operat-ing in Milan. 1980s which is the de-industrialization era, there had been a process of discharging all in-dustrial areas in Milan and all have become strategic areas for urban regeneration.

Milan to a knowledge city

Despite the fact that Industrial activities still work in peripheral areas, Milan has already increased its ad-vance service sector -management functions- around in. According to Costa and Sabatinelli (2011), those employed in service sector has signiicantly grown to 4.0 % while industrial sector has been in decline of 7.0 % from 2001 to 2007. Enterprises active in service sector comprise of 69 % and more than 60% of matured technology irms are located in Milan. Milan has been in long tradition of high degree of

streets in the city. Again, citizens are the target group and beneiciaries of the policy; However, the city of Milan is also a beneiciary

OutputOutput: Bike stations for every 300 meters from each other.Output efectiveness indicator: the efectiveness of the output will be achieved if all BikeMi stations are strategically located in areas where there are expected inluxes of people (universities, plaza, ca-thedrals, train station and etc.)

OutcomeOutcome: reduced the number of air polluted clogged streets as well as vehicles which may dump massive amount of pollution into air.Outcome efectiveness: A site survey on that air polluted clogged streets and by conducting inter-

ImpactImpact: he creation of the policy could strengthen citizen’s awareness on public health issue.Impact efectiveness: he possible best solution is to directly ask them, through compulsory survey, during their second subscription, on how relevant is bike rental on contributing in health issue matter. Nevertheless, an indirect of bike usage per day in a monthly or quarterly basis. he policy will be efec-tive in terms of outcome if there is increasing rate of bike rental.

indicator could be that the citizens advocate this awareness by inluencing their community to use bicycle as a new form of eco-public transportation.

of bike usage per day in a monthly or quarterly ba-sis. he policy will be efective in terms of outcome if there is increasing rate of bike rental.

ImpactImpact: he policy will afect the transportation choice of the citizen on daily basis. Impact efectiveness: he efectiveness of the impact has to determine and then compare the service statis-tics of bike usage per day and other means of trans-portation. Simply, determine the demand of bike cycling through service statistics igure. However, an indirect indicator of the efectiveness of the impact is when you could start seeing built-up of bike traic rather than on car traic.

Goal BLastly, if we launch bikesharing system in Munici-pality of Milan, then it could help lessen air polluted

Milano Skyline

technological research and highly-specialized work-force. he Image of the city as a creative hub can-not be underestimated -together with London, Paris and New York, it is considered as one of the Fashion capitals of the world-particularly in fashion and de-sign. Moreover, there are various cultural events and seminars such as Triennale “Milan Design week” which takes place annually. Milan is considered as one of the “Creative knowledge cities” by the Euro-pean Commission on its ACRE project.

To date, there are seven widely known universities in Lombardy region namely; University of Milan, Politecnico di Milano, Catholic university, Univer-sity of Milan-Bicocca, University of Bocconi, Libera Università di lingue e comunicazione IULM, and Libera Università “Vita Salute S.Rafaele”; 130 re-search and university institutes;40 public research centers and 80 private research facilities. here are about 185 000 university students and 8,100 from it are international students which constitute the 5% ratio of total number of students.

European Commission’s “Creative Knowledge city”

European commission’s ACRE project studies the potential development dynamics in 13 European cities and Milan has been included for its numer-ous creative and knowledge-based industries such as on designer fashion, architecture, music, arts and antiques, performing arts, crats, business manage-ment, and research and development.

Technology-pole in the case of Bicocca district

Bicocca was one of the biggest industrial areas of Milan. Pirelli company, one of the main irms in the growing italian capitalism, settled there most of their plants of tyres and cables, since 1900s Gi-acomo Pettenati (2006). It became Milan’s unique legacy which had exerted eforts in upgrading itself in technological innovation ater the de-industriali-zation era through its research groups and centers. Along with Pirelli’s demand of a technological pole, the Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) was in need of a place for the extension of its state university in Milan. As a result, there had been a partnership between them-together with the city council of Milan- which resulted on developing a techno-pole with the state university as the heart of the development.

Bicocca district: Investment in sot infrastructures

Bicocca district his project aimed to address the future of a huge industrial area that was about to be completely dis-charged, with heavy impacts on local economy and society. It was promoted by the owner of the area, Pirelli S.p.A. together with local institutions: City council of Milan and the Ministry of Education, University and Research.( Giacomo Pettenati, 2006).he possibility of a public-private partnership in which mutual interests of the market and of the lo-cal government would contribute to the urban re-

neration. (Goldstein, M, B, 2002; p.6) he objectives of the project are as follows; the creation of a techno-pole hub, with university at the heart of the develop-ment, that would be a

development driver for the city of Milan; the promo-tion of joint schemes between university, public and private research institutions and innovative compa-nies, and to develop technical resources that is ad-equate to the demands of medium and small hi-tech companies. (Puri Negri, 1999).

Bicocca district and its agglomeration of networked-economies

Bicocca district is functionally-networked by its in-ternal dynamic of activities with university as the fore front of attracting pool of highly qualiied hu-man and innovative resources to distribute compe-tences to other activities within Bicocca district. he network of university students and professors along with researchers from Pirelli Company, National Italian Statistics and Siemens research group clearly shows agglomeration of diverse economy.

Planning legal and public interest aspect City council of Milan, being the level who should upholds its public interest, contributes on driving “new urban districts or new sub-centers” around the greater area of Milan. Public spaces such as parks, cultural areas and new points of interaction which could give another identity outside the monocentric

structure Milan are the basic programmes of the city council. hey have also aligned and approved the planning, management, and implementation frame-work for the realization of the project through local urban planning tools; Piano Regolatore Generale which was approved by the municipal and the re-gional level and Piano di Inquadramento Operativo even though at irst it was merely a private project.

Economic program aspect Pirelli group, being the landowner of the area, ini-tiated the promotion of economic development programme “Techno-pole Hub” in the area where once hosted its main production plants. he area was chosen for its very strategic area located beside a regional train line which goes towards directly to the city center of Milan. hey have inanced major-ity (75%) of the development. However, he State (Ministry of Education, University and Research) also initiated a promotion of an economic develop-ment programme in the form of extending the state university of Milan. he university itself is both a public and economic contribution for the local area for the said reasons. It funded majority of the land expenses where the state university were built.

Interaction for local developmentSince majority of inancial capital came from the Pirelli Company, incautiously, it was the real leader of the development who also acted as the media-tor between the needs and wants of several actors. It has produced also the master plan scheme from

the design studio who won from their international competition which includes the public-interest con-tribution of city council of Milan and the Ministry of University.

he interaction only goes from Pirelli to the local in-stitutions as clearly shown in the diagram. Without any form of conformity or agreement between these institutions, the project has moved forward to its realization. hese linkages of actors have result the formulation of the main dominant economic player in the project-which is the University of Milan-Bico-cca with ailiation of diferent research centers.

Universities’ role in promotion of local development University irstly attracts pool of talented expatriate across the world to a local community whereas stu-dents simply help to boosting local economy from their expenditures in staying in the city and knowl-edge and experience being shared to the faculty. It provides training and research opportunities for future experts and research services which most of time attracts research consortium to invest in the university. Evidently, university elevates the com-petitive advantage of a locality or a country by its knowledge-based services. In return, It helps stu-dents to embrace more the culture, social, and edu-cation revitalization of their home communities.

University of Milan-Bicocca: a driver of local devel-opment To date, it is young university which was inaugurated

in 1998 with 30,000 students and over 1000 interna-tional students. he number of researchers is about 370 with 8 faculties of various ield. Although the university is just a decade of age it has managed to attract highly specialized people to permanently or temporarily be a student ,researcher and even ex-patriates which relects that the university has been in good position for all academes. It is the annex of Universita degli studi di Milano which ofers various programme in social and engineering science. the university itself ofers Masters program in Tourism and Local Development that clearly shows that the university itself has the institutional will on produc-ing researches on implementing set of guide for pol-icy makers in Milan about local development strat-egies. It is fourth university pole of the Lombardy region.

In just a short period of time, the university has been driving towards “Internationalization” together with its national and international partners in learning agreement and research departments such as fully-funded PHD scholarships, Erasmus and Extra EU exchange programmes and even its intensive pro-motion as an international university for attracting pool of multi-cultural talented students. he univer-sity acts as the; human and technical capital of re-search centers in Bicocca and to some national and international research bodies.

Comparison: University of Milan-Bicocca and other Milanese universities

Local Economic Development

he university has positioned itself to one of the top and largest universities in Lombardy region for just a decade. According to MIUR (Ministry of Educa-tion, University and Research) together with CINE-CA (2011) University of Milan-Bicocca has already 907 permanents teaching staf, which is quite not far from the old running universities in Milan like Politecnico di Milano with 1.317, Catholic univer-sity with 1.387, and University of Milan with 2.214. In relation to its numbers of produced graduates and enrollment statistics the university has also produced enough number of qualiied students for employment. According to MIUR, the university, for just a decade of age, has produced graduates in school year 2009-2010 half of those who graduated from Politecnico di Milano and University of Milan. in 2009-2010 it has produced 4. 645 graduates while Politecnico di Milano produced 8.004, Catholic uni-versity produced 8.394 and University of Milan pro-duced 8.717. In relation of the enrollment statistics in 2010-2011, the university shows a strong growth of number of students enrolled in. According to MIUR, the new enrollment for the school year sig-niicantly increased to 6.692 while other universities increased double the growth of University of Milan-Bicocca.

According to these statistics, it clearly shows how the university has signiicantly increased its teach-ing staf and enrolled students over the last years. he university’s drive for internationalization at its early age has helped its attractivity so much for it to

signiicantly grown and has become a forefront uni-versity in Milan.

University of Milan-Bicocca and other Bicocca ac-tivities he university of Milan-Bicocca along with its 8 faculties and 21 research departments has diferent partners and agreement on intensive research activi-ties to some national and international research of-ices located in the district of Bicocca. he National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Siemens research group and Pirelli research group to name a few. he university along with CHR and Siemens research is in joint research investment in improving business and science development for a cutting-edge innova-tion. Along with Pirelli Research Company, the uni-versity has intensive bilateral agreements with them. hey have been in joint research investment for stra-tegic projects such as in the ield of environmental science and innovation.

he university acts as the technology provider for Pirelli that is to be incorporated in producing their designs for commercial release. Pirelli ‘s research labs also has been awarding three-year doctorate degree scholarships and have been funded under the aus-pices of Corimav at the Department of Material Sci-ences at the university Bicocca with research topics focused on environmental sustainability and renew-able energy. All these agreements has brought the institutions to also be in partners in internship and employment opportunities based on performance

of a student. Typically, those students granted with fully funded scholarship are those who get the em-ployment opportunity to get into the research lab.

he university has also partnership with the Arcim-boldi theatre and Hangar Bicocca by sponsoring special cultural events about contemporary arts to-gether with Pirelli research labs. In relation to the student residences sited in the Bicocca district, the university runs two university residence to date; Building U12 ‘Residenza delle Fontane’ and Build-ing U22 ‘Residenza del Parco’. he residences can accomodate of more than 400 foreign and italian students,visiting professors and researchers.Typi-cally these residences become a melting pot where people across the globe meet and learn new cultures.

Impact of university to its surrounding and to the development of the city

We will try to examine the impact that Bicocca Pro-ject has created in its surroundings and in the city of Milan, during the time of its development and implementation. For this four dimensions will be analyzed; Image; Social composition; Real estate and Housing market and new mobility infrastructures.

First we discuss the impact of university on its sur-rounding by the development of newly made public transport systems. he evident and already working is the Metrotranvia line 7 which was constructed in 2002 that passes through the university from two

diferent zones of greater Milan. he area is in just between zone 2 and zone 9 and runs from Bicocca to Precotto. the construction of the new tram eases the accessibility of the university. from the city center to Northern Milan and also it provides the citizens another alternative mode of transportation during congestion brought by numerous university stu-dents. he existing regional rail line which runs by the Bicocca district became more strategic and has been receiving high number of students passengers from Northern Milan. Another public transporta-tion which shall open in irst quarter of 2013 is the metro line 5 which runs from the northern part of Milan to the EXPO site 2015. he university has the major factor why the new metro line runs in Bicocca area. his metro line stops directly in Bicocca dis-trict. he new metro line will be an automated rail-way system which is very irst in the city of Milan.

he university has helped signiicantly the promo-tion of housing market and real estate by being the greatest incentive for raising land prices around its area. the university attracts students from all over the world and these students increase the demand of housing around it since most students preferred to stay in proximity to the university. Although the university has two residence halls, still it is not suf-icient enough to accommodate all foreign and dis-tant Italian students. he real estate market before was declining due to eye sore sights of disused in-dustrial plants and were abandoned by most people due to environmental and employment issues in

Local Economic Development

Bicocca University and student dormitories

Bicocca but now it has becoming a place of choice to some instead of residing in the center which is quite higher than the price of the area.

he university has created a real social shit within the area, as new users occupy the area. It was once an area exclusively for workers but now because of the university it brings a “university identity” around the area and a heterogeneous (students, professors, workers, etc) and even an international atmosphere (International students). he area around have seen also the demographic changes over the last years where there are inlux of middle income social group.he social perception of inner Milan has sig-niicantly changed from a low class income to mid-dle class income group due to gradual movement upnorth.

he university itself has contributed on the image of the city as a city of knowledge. It is the fourth uni-versity pole in Lombardy region which increases the inlux of expatriates in the city which in the end will be the future professionals available for the demand of the city in advance-service sector. As shown in the statistics, service sector in Milan has been increasing over the last years and the demand for professionals to ill in those jobs increase too. However, it is not quite clear whether the university has created 100% full impact to the city on providing enough highly-skilled workers.

A university could contribute completely on local development if the students remain in the city and ind job ater graduation.

Conclusion

We therefore conclude that university shares a big contribution in promoting local economic devel-opment through the continuous low of people, knowledge and micro economic activities. It has all the important elements that a locality need for it to be locally or nationally competitive. We may con-clude also that it acts as a catalyzer for social, eco-nomic and intellectual development, as it attracts and brings people to a certain locality which in the long run contributes gradually on local economic improvement.

More so, the result of the coordination among pri-vate and political actors has created University of Milan-Bicocca the dominant economic driver of the project. Pirelli has made the university as its fore-front for a local development strategy that enables both actors -economic and political players- to at-tract their own “interest audience” for development. Undoubtedly, the city has beneited on the establish-ment of another university pole in the area which is now widely known for its excellence in teaching and research.

Master 2 in Urban Planning European Track: Tack-ling Metropolitan Challenges in Europe: Compara-tive Analysis

Role of private sector in metropolitan governance: he case of Pasig river rehabilitation in Metropolitan Manila, Philippines

Metropolitan Manila was once governed by a metro-politan commission issued by a presidential decree in 1975 to manage the afairs of the prime urban center of the Philippines. In order to address criti-cal problems and challenges in environmental deg-radation, alarming increase in slum areas and traic congestion the Metropolitan Manila Commission was responsible on overall development in the met-ropolitan area such as in planning, inancing and operating processes.It also acted as the governing body for legislation and execution of local power. he country at that time was under martial law and the setup of governance in Metropolitan Manila was highly centralized which deprived local government units from most of their jurisdiction responsibili-ties. But ater decades and democracy gained ater martial law, the commission completely shited all its jurisdiction roles from prime and fulltime in-volvement in all metropolitan afairs to secondary and part time works. he commission, which later on abolished and replaced with the present Metro-politan Manila

Development Authority (MMDA), has widely per-ceived today to be focused only on traic manage-ment and garbage disposal. Metropolitan Manila has total land area of 636 square kilometers which comprises of 17 local government units (cities).Each local government units has autonomy on its local authorities by their elected mayor, vice mayor and councilors. he interventions in metropolitan planning of MMDA are only in few speciic project related instances.MMDA is a member of some in-teragency coordinating body, such as the AntiSquat-ting Task Force.Pasig River Rehabilitation Council. (Nathaniel von Einsiedel, Former Commissioner for Planning of the Metropolitan Manila Commission). Along with economic and other political players, MMDA has since been working on rehabilitating the Pasig river major waterway of the metropolitan.

Turning point of the Pasig Riverhe Pasig River system runs through ive cities and four municipalities in Metropolitan Manila.It con-nects two large, important bodies of water; Manila Bay in the west is the country’ main port of mari-time trade and travel and Laguna de Bay in the east is the largest freshwater lake in the country and con-nects 30 suburban towns to the metropolitan centre (Richard Helmer and Ivanildo Hespanhol, 1997) . It traverses important and major cities of the metro-politan area such as the capital and inancial capital of the Philippines, Manila and Makati city.here are major tributaries and small estuaries directly lows

out to the river which made it a natural and impor-tant river basin in the metropolitan and region.

he river was once part of a very colorful metropoli-tan life but ater decades of continuously river degra-dation brought by ever increasing number of slums along the river with their garbage, proliferation of factories discharging untreated wastewater, frequent natural looding, and polluted tributaries and es-tuaries that carried away to the river a gargantuan amount of all forms of waste the river has become a serious metropolitan problem. he river has since been categorized as a biologically dead river. How-ever, several attempts were tried to bring back again the life in and on the river but all failed and were completely abolished in just a short period of time because all their strategic vision and programmes were all intended as a short lived solution that were not able to point out the root of the problem and recognized the importance of involving the commu-nities and private sectors.

he initiatives of the metropolitan to Pasig RiverVarious measures and programmes were initiated not just by the metropolitan authorities and agencies from national government but even international agencies. In 1991, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) with funding from the Danish International Development Agency (Da-nida) conducted a feasibility study that examines the overall condition and level of pollution of the Pasig

Metropolitan Governance

New housing development and tram line

point for the rehabilitation programme. (Richard Helmer and Ivanildo Hespanhol, 1997). Although there have been strategic framework and conducted researches made by existing agencies and an inter-national agency unfortunately they have not been able to exercise the programmes due to legal bureau-cracy that had been hindering them, there was even no any entity who really handled completely the overall coordination of the rehabilitation program and worst of all, local government units (cities) have been neglecting landuses and zoning ordinances of the area next to the river. he overall condition of the river and the haywire coordination of the pro-gram alarmed all levels of the government but it was the national level that was greatly afected on the un-organized development of the whole programme.

Consequently, It has resulted a big pressure to them to restructure the programme on addressing the problem. Due to lack of strategic programme for the river rehabilitation and inancial resources the national government together with representatives of various government units and private compa-nies has created a governing commission that is the overall coordinator of the programme. On the other hand, nongovernmental agencies have been work-ing on their own programme.

Multisectoral metropolitan projectPasig River Rehabilitation Commission: Towards a welfare state approach?

Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission (PRRC) is the governing body that is in charge of the overall development of the rehabilitation of the river. Today, PRRC composed of members in several national departments; the Metro Manila Mayors League MMML the council of mayors, and the two com-peting private television networks. he commis-sion is currently under the leadership of one of the private TV company (appointed by the president of the Philippines) along with involvement of the Met-ropolitan Manila Development Authority as the co-chairperson.

he national agencies currently involved on the pro-gram are: Housing and urban Development, Co-ordinating Council, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of National Defense, Department of Interior and Local Govern-ment, Department of Finance, Department of Tour-ism, and Department of Public Works and High-ways. Each national department is part of several operational divisions of the commission that their responsibilities are according from their respective national role. PRRC serves as the authority over all matters pertaining to the rehabilitation of the Pasig River. It coordinate, plan, approve, implement, su-pervise, monitor and or evaluate plans, programs, projects and activities, enforce laws, rules and reg-ulation where appropriate and perform such other functions are necessary to ensure the rehabilitation of the waterway. he Commission also ensures the upgrading of the river to attain a class C water qual-

he Commission also ensures the upgrading of the river to attain a class C water quality and the renew-al, redevelopment and upgrading of its surrounding urban environment.

he urban coalition with the two and biggest televi-sion network in the Philippines is highly considered to be considerably a strategic move from the govern-ment due to the fact that the new society context in most area of the country are greatly inluenced by the media and it is the easiest way to give awareness and disseminate information to people and other possible sponsors and partners. However, the weak governance and scarcity of technical and inancial resource of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority with its local government units and De-partment of Environment and Natural Resources has caused the commission to fully restructured its members and governance by giving more met-ropolitan involvement to private sectors and more national agencies. In the ligh of Philippines govern-ance, it has a habit of changing priorities with every presidential administration (Richard Helmer and Ivanildo Hespanhol, 1997), so the efective way to ensure continuity of the program is complete in-volvement of private sectors.

Media as a contributor to attracting more economic and civic group actors?Media in the Philippines are highly appreciated by the people and greatly inluenced their culture and lifestyle. he rehabilitation program has great

advantage of having the two television network as members of PRRC because each of them runs so-ciocivic foundation that receives help and support from various sponsors. As such, they are are highly trusted by the people and large private companies for their campaigns and programs espoused. Using media as part of the metropolitan governance could easily bring public attention/awareness and dissem-inate information not only to the citizens but also to private companies and civic groups that might be concern and interested in the rehabilitation pro-gram. he rehabilitation program has been highly publicized over the last years and it has been the medium of the PRRC to let citizens inform on what could be their possible involvement and participa-tion for the project, consistent information, educa-tion, communication campaign and of the transpar-ency of the programme.

hese private television networks have been organ-izing events such as fun runs “Pasig river run” for raising fund resources, the recent event has attracted over 93 000 people, and “Habitat for Humanity” a volunteer project to help building shelter in planned relocation sites for people who are in slum area along the river. We may say that the government has inally recognized the importance of involving the communities and more importantly involving that possesses the real deal of attracting multi sectoral support.

Metropolitan Governance

Pasig River and Rockwell Development

inlux of interests from private investments by the river, and it is very evident that they are highly de-pendent on externalities and so much focused on making the metropolitan competitive and attrac-tive in national and international context. here could be a big possibility that the urban strategies would be highly privatized and fragmented in their own ways but still institutionalized where political players only foresees and implement programs thru policies and strategies and private sectors parallel its development to it. Typically, political players in the Philippines are “subordinates” of very big private in-vestors and all local planning tools and policies are aligned to favour the realization of every private in-vestments.

ConclusionI therefore conclude that direct participation of pri-vate sector organisations will compel the govern-ment to pursue a long term objectives of the pro-gramme and by using media to bring public opinion and public participation will certainly escalate a pressure to the government. his will be a function of a consistent and aggressive information, educa-tion and communication campaign and of the trans-parency of the programme. Opening the governance system to private sector would allow political players to ill in the resources that private sector possesses.In the case of Pasig River rehabilitation, political play-ers open the governance to private sector because it is impossible for them to secure long term funding support for the program whereby its only the

private sector could guarantee such a support for them. It is not new in the Philippines where politi-cal players are highly in favour of economic players to startup or lead either metropolitan strategies and urban development projects Lastly, it is important to note the strong multi and inter governance challeng-es that confront such a scale of project. Stakeholder involvement, communities and public participation

political diferences and would provide equal power from the local institutions. Recently, the private sec-tor being the forefront organizer together with local government units have started a development pro-gram along estuaries and tributaries that attracted so much inancial donors from various large private companies Private sector in urban incentives.

he close relationship with political players and the complete involvement of the private sector in the development of the program may be very beneicial for them in the future. he private company which is part of a business conglomerate (media and tel-ecommunication, real estate market, manufacturing , power generation and distribution) could take ad-vantage of future developments along the river. hey could gain favour support from political players when the program will be implemented successfully the rehabilitation scheme. he parent company of the TV network has already established a real estate property near the Pasig river. he rehabilitation

program along the river contains not only reviving the life on the river but also reviving the metropoli-tan life along the river which most probably need waterfront developments, cultural and tourist parks, and additional ferry terminals on the river.

he urban incentives that these private sector would receive is dramatically enormous which would give them the business interest that surely they are ex-pecting from. It is very evident from the metropoli-

tan river again and these strategies have already served economic interests of private sector in the fu-ture development of the riverbanks. we may take an example of “inclusionary zoning” which means that the government should allocate a certain percentage of riverbanks development that is highly favourable to the scope of services of the private company.

Political players in future development of the river-bankshe metropolitan strategies along the riverbanks were all prepared by the political players despite the fact that it is the private sector who currently lead in the rehabilitation program. It is no doubt that the political players still hold the right to manage the metropolitan program and strategies, but these all certainly respond favourably to the economic inter-est of private sector. At present, the rehabilitation program is probably at the middle of its process, and not much of metropolitan strategies have been phys-ically developed yet, they are currently at the phase of gathering support and stabilizing the rehabilita-tion program for its long term goal.

he role of political players in the future develop-ment of the riverbanks lies on their vision of mak-ing the river a part of metropolitan life again and to bring back its attractiveness to the people. Although the development along the river is considered as in-stitutionalized, it will still be a very crucial role for the political players to implement perfectly its ur-ban strategies because undoubtedly there would be

Market-led urban projects in the future?

he programme has been managed by a representa-tive of the private organization which was appointed by the President of the Philippines. Some say it may be the fact that these private organization has been campaigning over the last years the rehabilitation of the river and so the government has sought that they could be the best partner for ensuring continu-ity of the program. his private organization is usu-ally more capable than the government of sustaining initiatives because they are less afected by political considerations and they are the largest network in the Philippines, as they claim it. he active participa-tion of more private organisations, especially those that can provide special technical expertise not nor-mally inherent in government, will ensure continu-ity of the programme (Richard Helmer and Ivanildo Hespanhol, 1997).

We may say that the real intention of the govern-ment to involve and make them as the chairperson of PRRC is not just because of the long tradition of campaign and “patriotism” programmes of the pri-vate company, but rather they could perfectly bring the most needed inancial support and initiatives for the project. A local government unit representative even openly said “If it were all government, there would be one upmanship among local oicials” it may suggest that none of the local oicials would want to be under another local oicial, and a pri-vate sector leading the group may break any politi-

Metropolitan Governance

PRRC and other non- state actors

DON JOHNSON LONTOC

a r c h i t e c t u r e + p l a n n i n g

p o r t f o l i o