Gov’t intervention needed in urban land development, says expert | Business and Politics - video Dailymotion

The Manila Times

Gov’t intervention needed in urban land development, says expert | Business and Politics  Dr. Nathaniel “Dinky” Von Einsiedel, an urban development and management specialist, speaks about the “15-minute city” where residents may get to where they need to go in 15-minutes through transportation or simply by walking to their destinations. He said one of the biggest challenges in transportation development is the fragmented laws on land ownership, which needs government intervention.   Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe   Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net   Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook  Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram  Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter  DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion   Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital   Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify  Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts  Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic  Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Stitcher: https://tmt.ph/stitcher Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein  #TheManilaTimes

Transcript

00:00 So can I circle back to what you mentioned a while ago about the 15-minute city,

00:04 because, and which is also related to what we were talking about with railway development,

00:09 because I guess the context of this question has to do with the remarks we've been hearing that

00:14 the traffic congestion in Manila is back with a vengeance, not just as bad as it was before

00:22 the pandemic, some say even worse. And so in the context of smart city development,

00:29 can you talk about maybe what are the possibilities or the way we should be

00:34 thinking about this particular issue? Okay, well, first of all, you can't solve

00:39 the problems of Metro Manila within the territory of Metro Manila only.

00:44 I see. The problems have grown tremendously over the years.

00:51 You don't have the elbow room anymore within Metro Manila to solve the problems.

00:57 And that's where transport comes in. Okay.

01:00 The North-South commuter railway will connect Lark to Metro Manila all the way to Kalamba.

01:07 Right. Okay. In fact,

01:09 in the earlier plans of NEDA, that railway line is supposed to extend all the way to Batanga City.

01:18 I see. Okay. The idea is to plan the three regions,

01:24 Central Luzon, National Capital Region, and Calabar Zone in an integrated manner.

01:30 I see. With a transport backbone.

01:33 I see. Okay. So that you're able to decentralize

01:36 the congestion that tends to overly concentrate in the National Capital Region. The problem is,

01:44 in the past, is you don't have the opportunities to really move things out.

01:50 Right. There was a... The roadway system in Metro Manila,

01:56 as it is up to now, is a system of 10 radial roads and 6 circumferential roads.

02:04 Okay. All concentrating on downtown Manila.

02:08 Okay. And therefore, you congest

02:10 downtown Manila. Right.

02:12 Now, the more appropriate approach is a ladder approach where you, instead of...

02:18 I see. ...concentrating...

02:21 You spread it out. You spread it out and you extend the network.

02:25 Right. And so mass transit is an important

02:28 component of that network. So the commuter railway is going to help decentralize it. Now,

02:36 the thing is, you need to consolidate big parcels of land...

02:41 Sure. ...if you want to do integrated development.

02:44 Sure. The problem, or the obstacle to this,

02:48 is that our land ownership structure is so fragmented that you need to talk to so many

02:56 landowners... Right.

02:57 ...to assemble a large track of land. I see.

03:00 And therefore, it kind of pushes away the real estate developers because they don't want to

03:07 have to talk to too many landowners, especially if the landowners are not willing to sell...

03:15 Yeah. ...or are asking for ridiculously

03:18 high prices. Right.

03:19 So there is a tendency for the real estate developers to concentrate on government-owned

03:26 lands like the New Clark City... Which is available.

03:28 ...because it's a government-owned land. I see.

03:30 Or you have the former military bases. Right.

03:33 So, you know, but if the private developers need to assemble land and they have to contend

03:42 with private landowners, it becomes a deterrent. And therefore, there needs to be some kind of a

03:48 policy... Yeah.

03:50 ...that government can assist... Yeah.

03:52 ...in kind of, you know, helping consolidate... Yeah.

03:56 ...the property to enable an integrated kind of development. Otherwise, you end up with,

04:02 you know, somebody putting up a factory here, a residential area here, you know, and...

04:07 A free-for-all... Yeah.

04:09 I'm not a lawyer, sir, but I'm sure... I know your background is urban planning and architecture,

04:15 but I've heard of this term "eminent domain." Is that something that, you know,

04:20 you know, is unused or a possibility to, as you said, consolidate those lands regardless of,

04:28 you know, there's opposition from the private owners?

04:32 Well... Is that something possible in the Philippines?

04:35 There is an alternative to the practice or the use of eminent domain.

04:40 Okay. Eminent domain is expropriation.

04:42 Right. Okay? And it's a politically

04:45 sensitive kind of a strategy. Okay.

04:49 Not very many politicians want to use it... I see.

04:51 ...because they won't win in the next election if they do.

04:54 I see. Okay.

04:55 So... Okay.

04:55 But there is an alternative to it, which is called land readjustment.

05:00 Land readjustment. Okay.

05:01 We don't have that in the Philippines. Okay.

05:03 But it is something that is present in Japan, in Germany, in France, in a number of other places.

05:10 Okay? The idea is that when the government identifies an area as a priority area for

05:18 development... I see.

05:18 Okay? And it's owned by several private landowners. Okay?

05:23 In the case of Japan, if you get 70 percent of the landowners to agree...

05:29 I see. ...that 30 percent can

05:31 not object to it. I see.

05:33 Okay? It's majority rule.

05:35 I see. Now, that, I think,

05:37 is something that we should adopt in the Philippines. I see.

05:40 Okay? Does that require a law or...?

05:42 It requires a law. I see.

05:43 It requires a law. And, you know, this is something that is known to urban planning...

05:48 I see. ...to the urban planning profession,

05:50 because we don't have a similar system in the Philippines.

05:55 I see. And except for the use of eminent domain...

05:59 Right. ...which, as I said,

06:01 is a very politically sensitive... Politically sensitive, yeah.

06:04 ...strategy. So I have been trying to advocate the adoption of the land readjustment system.

06:12 Some people have been saying, "Okay, why don't we try a voluntary..." It doesn't work in the

06:18 Philippines. No one will volunteer.

06:20 No one will volunteer. Yeah.

06:21 So it has to come up. But I think it's doable if the incentives are attractive enough.

06:29 I see. For example, if you are a landowner,

06:32 and the area has been designated as a land readjustment area...

06:35 Yeah. ...you have the option of getting an outright

06:39 payment for your land, okay? Or you can be a shareholder...

06:43 I see. ...in the development company that will develop

06:46 the area. I see.

06:46 Or you can get housing units or a condo unit... Right.

06:50 ...or commercial space in the development of the area.

06:53 Yeah. So you don't need to actually give up...

06:56 I see. ...if you don't want to give up.

06:58 I see. Because there are a number of... I think this

07:01 is something that's cultural to many Filipinos. They'd like to be able to hand it over to their...

07:07 Sure. ...children, grandchildren, something like

07:09 that. I see.

07:09 So that provides them the opportunity to do so. That's so interesting. Well, this segment started

07:15 out with the traffic, transportation issues. Do you think that there's a problem also with the way

07:22 policymakers are thinking about public transportation? Because Filipinos aspire to

07:31 have a car, but they say, I've heard this quote saying that a country is rich when the wealthy

07:39 people take public transport. But in the Philippines, there seems to be a mindset that

07:44 public transportation is for the poor, and therefore the quality, the cleanliness of it

07:52 is not something that would attract a larger market.

07:57 Well, we have, in the last few years, have been trying to promote rail transport.

08:07 Right. And in fact, what I mentioned earlier,

08:10 the North-South Commuter Railway. We've had LRT, we've had MRT, and quite a number of people use

08:19 that. When we travel abroad, I mean, even the rich people who...

08:24 Use the subway, yeah. ...they use the subway.

08:26 They ride a bus. I think if the quality of the public transport is good,

08:34 then I think people are going to use it. The problem, I think, that we have is that

08:41 we don't build ahead of the need. I see. We simply react, we're following...

08:48 That's right. We're simply reacting, and very often, I think the mindset is, "Pwede na yan."

08:57 So you end up with an overly congested train, MRT or LRT. Then the people who can afford cars

09:08 will not want to line up when they see in the news these long queues of people.

09:18 And then the inconvenience, particularly, I mean, if you're a senior citizen or a PWD,

09:24 how do you get up to those stations? And there are no public toilets in those stations.

09:31 So there are a lot of obstacles, I think, to the use of public transport in the Philippines that

09:40 discourages the better-off population from using public transport. So I think that's something

09:50 that needs to be taken into consideration when new lines are being planned or modernization

09:57 programs are being planned. It's not just the vehicle itself. The stations also need to be

10:04 improved. And the connections. And the connections. Is there a government body that looks after that?

10:10 Because I think one of the things that you mentioned to me when we were talking at the

10:15 forum was that in Metro Manila, for example, one of the problems is that you have 17 different

10:21 kingdoms, right? And yet you really have one organically city that needs to

10:30 work together, right? And it's partly fragmented the way decisions are made.

10:36 Okay. Well, Metro Manila is a kind of a special situation where you have the 17. In fact,

10:45 you can even question why limit it to 17. I mean, when you go south, do you know where Las

10:53 Piñas ends and where Cavite begins? I mean, unless you're from there, you probably wouldn't know.

11:00 Or in the north, I mean, where does Venezuela, Mekawai, and you know, etc. Anyway, so the

11:08 planning, when we talk about planning, and we talk about land use, we talk about transport,

11:17 we talk about different kinds of services, you cannot eliminate the issue of governance.

11:26 Because you need to have a kind of a consensus when you talk about the kind of economies of scale

11:35 that is needed for the delivery of certain kinds of services.

11:40 Like rail, as you were saying, right? That's right. So you need to have an agreement

11:45 among a number of individual LGUs. Now, one very good example outside of Metro Manila,

11:56 is the management of disasters. Watersheds, for example. Flooding. Water supply. Now,

12:06 when you talk about a watershed, very often it's comprising of several local authorities.

12:13 Now, it would be advantageous if this local towns and cities belong to the same province. But in

12:22 some cases, they're not. You know, they belong to two separate, you know, like what happened in

12:27 Mindanao, where Cagayan de Oro flooded, and the floodwaters came all the way from upstream,

12:35 from another province. So there is a need, really, what we refer to in urban management,

12:43 as interlocal cooperation. Now, it's easier said than done. In the realities of Philippine politics,

12:54 when the mayor of one city and the mayor of the other city...

12:58 They don't get along.

12:59 They don't get along. Then it's very difficult to kind of forge that kind of cooperation. Now,

13:06 this is where the province plays a major role. Now, in a number of cases, the province has a

13:16 strong kind of influence over the component LGUs. It, however, has a problem if there is a city

13:26 that's chartered, and therefore not under the governance of the province. It's an independent

13:34 entity altogether. And like in the case of Metro Bacolod, you have a district that's comprising

13:46 of all the towns that surrounds Bacolod, but Bacolod is not part of it. It's a separate

13:53 district altogether. So, you know, you have that kind of a situation where, from a planning,

14:03 management, sustainable development perspective, you need to have an integrated approach. You need

14:11 to have an agreement of the different components, but the political system is not supportive of it.

14:18 So, that's a major obstacle.

14:21 [ Silence ]

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Gov’t intervention needed in urban land development, says expert | Business and Politics

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