Environmental group bats for ecological, economic dev’t in new CLUP

DAVAO CITY – Environmental group Interface Development Interventions (IDIS) hopes the City Government of Davao can come up with a revised Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP), a guide of the city’s development for the next nine to 10 years, that will ensure the balance between ecological and economic development.

“Sustainable development should also ensure improving livability of the city, which means all its projects should contribute to improving the quality of life of the people and not just focus on building infrastructures,” IDIS executive director Chinkie P. Golle said on Tuesday.

As part of a technical working group, Golle said she hopes to have a meaningful and substantial participation in reviewing and drafting a new CLUP along with other civil society groups.

She said they hope the revised version of the CLUP will take into account both the emerging and on-going massive developments here to ensure the city is heading to a sustainable development direction.

“It should cover the aspirations and goals of the LGU and all the Dabawenyos,” she said.

Davao City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) head Ivan Cortez said they are eyeing to complete the revision to the 2013 to 2022 CLUP before May 2019 and submit the draft document to the 18th City Council for approval before it adjourns on June 30, 2019.

He said they would start with the first of the five modules after the visioning exercises this week to allow stakeholders from various sectors to give inputs for the drafting of the land use plan because it “should be an agreed direction by all sectors.”

The City Government of Davao has allocated some P4 million to conduct the workshops and consultations, according to Cortez.

The city official said he is optimistic the draft will be completed in five months because the technical working group will not start from scratch as they will use the existing 2013-2022 CLUP as a working draft for the 2019 to 2028 CLUP.