Public participation in environment protection urged

FORMER Baguio City Architect Jody Alabanza have urged residents of the city to actively participate in decision making, particularly in the infrastructure development which continue to affect the environment of the country’s summer capital.

During the weekly Talakayan sa Environment Code, Alabanza emphasized the need for the present generation to strengthen public participation in governance since everyone is part of the decision making process of the city.

“We decide on a thing without thinking on the consequence it will bring. And I think it’s about time in our schools specially those teaching architecture and urban planning to think contextual. It is not only designing a bottle but designing where the bottle will be placed. When we design a building, we should consider the place and the environment where a building will be placed,” Alabanza stated.

Public participation is the process by which an organization consults interested or affected individuals, organizations, and government entities before making a decision, aside from a twoway communication and collaborative problem solving with the goal of achieving better and more acceptable decisions.

Alabanza pointed out the need to continuously inform and empower the citizens on how the environment of the city must be managed.

“To me, the important thing in terms of the implementation of programs and projects is public participation. We’ve got to awaken the spirit of the people who are thinking of the future of Baguio,” Alabanza said.

Alabnaza pointed out the importance of the youth in public participation saying they would be the inheritors of what the present and future development of the city would be.

“We will not be here

forever so I think it is time we involve the children. They know what they want but of course as they grow older, the environment changes, and the context where development is, is always changing,” Alabanza added.

In a recent focus group discussion at the National Economic and Development AuthorityCAR which estimated the urban capacity of the city, the representatives pointed out it’s about time the city come up with its own standards appropriate to the city’s economic, social and geophysical situation, and to what the people of Baguio want for their city.