A.
United Nations Assistance in the Earlier Years: 1940s -
1950s
The National Urban Planning Commission
(NUPC) was created in 1946 through Executive Order No. 98 to
assist in the rebuilding of cities that had been destroyed
during the war. The Commission was authorized to develop
general plans to control the location of public and
publicly-assisted improvements, enact zoning ordinances, and
draw up building and subdivision regulations for urban areas
in the country.
However, as these functions and
responsibilities were gradually devolved to local
governments, the NUPC through the years played a more
perfunctory role providing advice in planning matters. As
years passed by, problems in local planning began to surface
gradually: squatters living in public parks, subdivision
owners selling lots without providing roads and utilities,
land prices soaring, towns and communities sprawled along
highways, and roads clogged with calesas, buses and
jeepneys.
These symptoms of ineffective use of land control measures
along with the growing problem of population growth
characterized many of the cities all over the country. In
1958, the government was compelled to seek assistance in
planning from the United Nations.
The first in a series of UN missions to
the Philippines was composed of Charles Abrams and Otto
Koenigsberger, experts in the fields of planning and
housing. Their one-month mission was considered
extraordinary, as they were able to synthesize in their
report major problems and constraints facing town and
country planning in the Philippines. Their report
highlighted the need for planning that is based on an
assessment present and future housing needs, the rational
allocation of land for various uses, the planning of
neighborhood and the provision of dispersed employment, the
improvement of transport facilities, and the study of the
use and development of railroad lines. It was the first
report that emphasized the importance of regional planning
and development laws.
As early as 1959, an important development in the University of the
Philippines (U.P.) was starting to gain momentum. The
Director of the Institute of
Public Administration, Carlos P. Ramos, was commissioned by the
UNESCO to prepare a
study on the problems of Metropolitan Manila. His interest
on the matter was further heightened when the Institute
received a research grant from the Ford Foundation on the
problems and operations of local governments in national
development.
B.
The Establishment of the Institute of
Planning: 1960s
II. MAJOR
THRUSTS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
F. Dr.
Candido A. Cabrido, Jr.: 2007-present
