This is especially true in the Philippines, a country which is highly vulnerable to natural disasters given its geographic placement. The onus to protect urban dwellers from the brunt of the climate emergency now falls on Filipino developers, who are increasingly turning to sustainable design practices to create disaster-resilient communities.

To discuss in-depth the various means which have proven effective in disaster-proofing the country’s cities, ULI Philippines invited leading professionals for their 2022 Conference, themed “Past, Present & Future – Evolution of Cities”. The segment, in particular, served to spotlight the present, by displaying the various efforts currently underway to help safeguard cities’ infrastructures.

The panel included: Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF) Executive Director Veronica Gabaldon, Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) Executive Vice President Aileen Zosa, Australian architect Simon Parsons, and Ninety Design Studio Founder Aris Go. They were joined by moderator: Liveable Cities Challenge Chairman Bill Luz.

Setting off the session was a quick presentation from Gabaldon, who introduced PDRF as a “an alliance of businesses dedicated to building the disaster management capabilities of the private sector in the country”, born out of the late President Aquino’s call on businesses to help in the post-Typhoon Ondoy recovery.

According to Gabaldon, cities and economies have always been interconnected, saying “cities have always been at the heart of economic growth, job opportunities and technological advancement”. Thus, placing further importance on building disaster-resilient cities.

PDRF achieves this goal by leveraging on their core competencies as private-owned businesses and using the respective expertise of their network by providing what they call “resilience lifeline services” to communities and other businesses.

Gabaldon notes that PDRF has an impressive line-up of resilience-building activities nationwide which they have accomplished through public-private partnerships. Among which include the Earthquake Early Warning System, which can detect an earthquake as soon as it occurs.

Gabaldon added that just last March 2022, PDRF had assisted in the relief operations following Typhoon Odette by providing critical infrastructure through their assessment and restoration teams. They readily provided free calls and charging stations. Meralco and Aboitiz were able to restore power in some regions. Meanwhile, DMCI handled the logistics supply of the initiative.

“Clearly, you see that the right way of harnessing the strength of the private sector is very key in helping manage all these disasters”, Gabaldon said.

After which, Luz welcomed the entire panel on stage and set off by asking Zosa about how BCDA has embedded resiliency in their projects, specifically in New Clark City (NCC), which coincidentally served as the 2022 ULI Philippines’ event venue.

“New Clark City is envisioned to be the first smart, green, disaster-resilient metropolis in the Philippines”, said Zosa. “This New Clark City will be a new frontier of development”.

According to Zosa, of the 9,450 hectares allotted for the initial phase of New Clark City, only 3,500 will be developed to promote sustainability– promising “we are not going to bulldoze hills or mountains because we are going to develop the area following the lay of the land”.

In an effort to create a more sustainable community in NCC, BCDA also embarked on a venture to develop better power distribution practices, as well as an improved water and wastewater management system. BCDA has committed to using smart transforming and contactless meter reading technologies for the rising development as they believe that it will optimize the city’s energy use.

Similarly, Parsons noted that the culture of sustainability has been well-embraced in Australia since the success of the green Olympic Village in 2000 and urged that sustainability should begin at the master planning stage.

“If you don’t have things at the right place, if you don’t design an environment where people aren’t reliant on their car, are able to move around attractive pedestrian environments, then you commit the city to an unsustainable future”, he said.

He further said that although designing more green spaces and buildings can prove to be impactful, sustainability is “largely about creating an environment where people enjoy being outside, are able to move around comfortably, and to not rely on machinery or energy use for their normal working life”.

Moreover, Parsons feels hopeful for a sustainable Philippines, stating  “Already you can see that there is a culture that enjoys interface with an attractive public domain”.

Meanwhile in Baguio, where Go is born and based, sustainability has been hard-fought. Go estimates that despite the nostalgia surrounding the city, it has always been notoriously unresilient with the majority of the city neglected by local government.

One of Go’s suggestions to improve Baguio’s conditions is by rehabilitating the city’s waterways, which have been treated as wastewater over time.

Parsons agreed and noted that waterway rehabilitation had been one of the Sydney Olympics’ success stories, where businesses seeing the commercial value of such projects started adopting it en masse.

He said, “There was an absolute transformation from what was once a sort of industrial disposal waterway into something which is now one of the most important parts of the amenity of new imagined developments in Sydney”.

Gabaldon noted that in the Philippines, disaster resilience has considerably improved since Ondoy, especially with the coordination between government, private sector, advocacy groups and civil society.

With the government’s importance in disaster preparedness, Zosa confirmed that the National Government Administrative Center in NCC was recently completed, with agencies expected to formally establish satellite offices soon. NCC will also house the Government Data Center, which will store all government data and ensure business continuity in the chance that a calamity strikes Metro Manila.

After which, Go urged Baguio’s leaders and planners to recognize the characteristics that set the city apart from the rest of the country and hoped that the solutions forwarded today may be of help to Baguio and beyond.