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Specific target: 13.1 (Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries)

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With a land area of 1,182.65 square km or 456.62 square mi, the province of Rizal is found in the CALABARZON Region or Region IV-A. At its west is Metro Manila or NCR Region and south of it is Laguna de Bay. South-west of it is Laguna, east of it is Quezon which is bounded by the Sierra Madre mountain range, and north of it is the province of Bulacan. Its capital is Antipolo City.

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The following graph presents the distribution of population in each local government unit (LGU). Antipolo City is the most populated LGU in Rizal.

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Total population as of 2020: 3,330,143

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As seen in the graph, the age group with the highest population is 5-9 years old (10.84%). The workforce (yellow) is 65.63% (1,892,851) of the population.

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Most of the people in Rizal are Tagalog and speak in the dialect Tagalog. English is the second language of many.

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In the year 2016, the annual regular revenue of the province was ₱2,935,044,652.27. The graph shows a consistent increase in annual regular revenue or income from 2009 to 2016, with a steep increase from 2014-2015.

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References in addition to the news articles:

https://www.rizalprovince.ph/pages/generalinformation.html

https://www.philatlas.com/luzon/r04a/rizal.html

http://rsso04a.psa.gov.ph/rizal

https://www.manilaeastmedicalcenter.com/

https://cahwci.ph/the-company

https://mb.com.ph/2021/07/21/residents-near-pasig-marikina-tullahan-rivers-warned-of-possible-flooding-due-to-monsoon-rains/

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Rizal is mostly an agricultural province, with tons of valleys and areas for planting crops. Since it is near Laguna de Bay, fishing is another livelihood in Rizal. In areas with mountains such as Antipolo City, Tanay, and Baras, large deposits of rocks and red clays are can be collected. These can be used as construction materials.

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This Sustainable Development Goal focuses on the environment, particularly in adaptation and mitigation of communities in times of natural disaster

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The functional literacy rate of the province of Rizal is 99.7% as of 2019. As of 2017, there are 450,795 students enrolled in the elementary level while 230,519 students are enrolled in the secondary level. There are 257 public and 624 private elementary schools while there are 112 public and private high schools in Rizal as of 2016-2017.

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As of 2016, there are 11 government and 24 private hospitals found in Rizal. Some known hospitals are Manila East Medical Center and Clinica Antipolo Hospital & Wellness Center, both being tertiary hospitals.

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As an area near a lake, bordered by a mountain range, and relatively near a fault line (West Valley Fault in NCR), it is no doubt that the province is prone to natural disasters.

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The Upper Marikina River neighbors Rodriguez, San Mateo, and Antipolo City. These municipal areas experience flooding because of the rising water level in the river. In addition, as these areas are found on slopes of mountains or are at the foot of mountains, landslides are a possible risk.

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Specific target: 11.1 (By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums)

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The following new article narrates the effects of Typhoon Ulysses. The immense flooding was unexpected by both citizens and local officials. Rizal was said to be the hardest-hit province among the Region IV-A provinces.

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The sheer amount of rainfall as Typhoon "Ulysses" (international name: Vamco) crossed Calabarzon region and Metro Manila starting Wednesday night until early Thursday caused massive flooding in Rizal province, forcing residents to seek safety on rooftops as floodwater rose.

Since Wednesday night, frantic residents in Rodriguez (formerly Montalban) and San Mateo towns in Rizal had been flooding the social media and disaster response hotlines with pleas for rescue, as mobile phone batteries began to drain and water submerging single-story houses.

Local authorities asked them to hold on, as families with children and elderly huddled on rooftops, citing difficulty in moving around at night in the middle of power outages.

By noon on Thursday, almost all government rescue boats and equipment were redeployed to these two towns to rescue around 8,000 people.

The Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (DRRMC) in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) had also asked less-affected areas, like Batangas province and San Pablo City in Laguna province, to send in their teams and even sought the help of private rescue groups.

Residents were ferried by government dump trucks to safer evacuation centers since some of these shelters, like those in San Mateo, were also flooded.

Max, a 25-year-old resident of Felicidad Village 3 in Barangay Banaba, San Mateo, said there was no advice at all from the local officials to preemptively evacuate until 1 a.m. on Thursday when village officials sounded the alarm that a portion of the Marikina River was nearing its critical level.

"At 4 a.m., we were all surprised to see the water above our knees and that (the adjacent subdivision) North Libis was already flooded," he said.

Max, who declined to disclose his full name in fear of retaliation from village officials, said rescue came "very late" that his family decided on its own to move to a friend's house. He said the same happened in Barangay Maly.

Too much rain

It also took a while for help to reach the family of Antonette Goño, trapped on the roof in their home in Barangay San Jose, Rodriquez.

Loel Malonzo, Rizal DRRMC officer, said his office enforced a preemptive evacuation of close to 5,000 people from the low-lying and high-risk areas in the province way ahead of the typhoon.

But the flood in San Mateo and Rodriguez, which are upland towns, was just unexpected.

"[We were] really surprised. [But] to be fair to the LGUs (local government units), no one could have [beaten] that much rain," Malonzo said in a telephone interview.

He said they recorded 750 millimeters of rainfall (an average of 100 mm per hour) from 10 p.m. Wednesday to 6 a.m. Thursday, "not to mention it had been raining already before that."

What happened, he said, was comparable to the 2018 "habagat" (southwest monsoon) that dumped 1,000 mm of rain in 12 hours and the 2009 Tropical Storm "Ondoy" (Ketsana) with 500 mm of rain in four hours.

Saturated watershed

Alex Masiglat, spokesperson for the regional DRRMC, said Rizal was the hardest-hit province in Calabarzon, where the agency also recorded its first fatality in Cainta town.

Robert Napeñas Jr., 15, died from injuries after a tree fell on their house in Country Homes subdivision.

Malonzo also blamed the "saturated" Marikina watershed, and dams and floodgates opening, but did not think it was exacerbated by quarry operations in Rodriguez which, he said, was just in a small portion of the town.

In Laguna, the Caliraya Dam in Cavinti town released water as its reservoir neared its spilling level.

Families in Famy town had to be rescued on rubber boats, while chest-deep floodwater inundated the Laguna lakeshore villages of Landayan and Cuyab in San Pedro City and Dela Paz in Biñan City.

Emil Hernandez, the environmental regulations department chief of the Laguna Lake Development Authority, said lake water rose to 13.06 meters, breaching the maximum 12.50 m level, and triggered shoreland flooding.

Displaced

The regional DRRMC said the typhoon had displaced 6,621 families (23,438 people) across Calabarzon as of Thursday afternoon.

In Quezon province, 14,398 families were evacuated on Wednesday and early Thursday as Ulysses brought furious winds and poured heavy rain.

A kilometerlong section of Maharlika Highway in Lopez, Quezon, that links Metro Manila to the Bicol region was flooded and rendered impassable to all types of vehicles.

Ulysses made three landfalls over Patnanungan, Burdeos and General Nakar towns in Quezon from Wednesday night to early Thursday before it headed to Nueva Ecija province at 4 a.m. on Thursday.

In Oriental Mindoro province, the local DRMMC reported heavy flooding, prompting the evacuation of 1,198 families. -WITH REPORTS FROM DELFIN MALLARI JR. AND MADONNA VIROLA

Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer & other 70+ titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download as early as 4am & share articles on social media. Call 896 6000.

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The sheer amount of rainfall as Typhoon "Ulysses" (international name: Vamco) crossed Calabarzon region and Metro Manila starting Wednesday night until early Thursday caused massive flooding in Rizal province, forcing residents to seek safety on rooftops as floodwater rose.

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MULTIMEDIA
A cyclist and other vehicles pass through, as local authorities clear the road of debris after a landslide destroyed houses in Sitio AC, Barangay San Rafael, Rodriguez town, Rizal on Friday. Residents left a few hours before the landslide after hearing and feeling rocks moving due to the continuous rain from the previous days.

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authorities clear rodriguez road after landslide | abs-cbn news

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Authorities clear Rodriguez road after landslide

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MULTIMEDIA A cyclist and other vehicles pass through, as local authorities clear the road of debris after a landslide destroyed houses in Sitio AC, Barangay San Rafael, Rodriguez town, Rizal on Friday. Residents left a few hours before the landslide after hearing and feeling rocks moving due to the continuous rain from the previous days.

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Because of rapid urbanization, the environment gets affected negatively. Deforestation is one of its results. The Masungi Georeserve, which is declared as a conservation site in the Philippines. In the article it states that while those who preserve the conservation try to plant new trees, these young trees just get destroyed by offenders.

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A blatantly illegal and potentially catastrophic tree-cutting activity is taking place in the Upper Marikina Watershed.

(Photo from Masungi Georeserve Facebook page)

The Masungi Georeserve Foundation recently discovered what it described as a "tree massacre" during its on-the-ground inspection of the large scale burnings in the critical watershed. People behind the georeserve took to Facebook to share their shocking findings.

"We saw what hell on earth might look like: scores of young trees cut down, multiple new structures and outsiders installed, large tracts of the protected area illegally burned and cleared. We were gutted," a post last Wednesday, June 16, read.

"On one side of the mountain, we are planting and nurturing native trees, on the other side, offenders continue to destroy and encroach on the critical watershed." The apparent illegal logging activities should not be ignored, the georeserve stressed.

"The watershed is our only natural defense against disastrous flooding, scorching heat, the loss of clean water, and the extinction of our unique wildlife," it wrote, adding, "We cannot turn a blind eye to this!"

(Photo from Masungi Georeserve Facebook page)

"The watershed deserves protection and restoration, not deforestation," the same post read.
Another worrisome detail uncovered during the inspection was the presence of suspicious people on site. "On our documentation mission, we found persons at the scene of the crime. They said they were in a so-called 'association of farmers' (mga 'magmamais at manggugulay') who were recently invited and brought into the protected area."

(Photo from Masungi Georeserve Facebook page)

"We know from experience that transplanting people and using various dummies as fronts is a common tactic used by vested interests to occupy forest land," the georeserve said.

"We have reported these illegal burnings and clearings to partner enforcement agencies and we will continue to work with them and concerned groups to hold perpetrators accountable. In the meantime, we have established additional checkpoints to prevent further encroachments into the watershed and reforestation sites, which is Masungi's larger ecosystem," it added.

Located in the Southern Sierra Madre range in Baras, Rizal, the Masungi Georeserve is a conservation area in the Philippines. It is centered on the geological formations of Masungi Rock.

It was declared a strict nature reserve and wildlife sanctuary by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) back in 1993.

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Masungi Georeserve protectors 'gutted' after discovering deforestation activities in critical watershed

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A blatantly illegal and potentially catastrophic tree-cutting activity is taking place in the Upper Marikina Watershed. (Photo from Masungi Georeserve Facebook page) The Masungi Georeserve Foundation recently discovered what it described as a "tree massacre" during its on-the-ground inspection o

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It is the right for each and every citizen to have sustainable and affordable housing. Having a sustainable community will improve the quality of life of each citizen. This will also lead to a more productive community.

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This gallery showed destroyed houses in slum areas in Rizal. It is shown that the materials used in their homes are materials such as cardboard, wood, steel, concrete. Wood is flammable, which may be the reason why the fire spread quickly in these informal settlements. This gallery shows that many citizens in Rizal suffer from proper housing and settlement.

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Over 170 families left homeless after fire at slum area in Rizal Province, the Philippines

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A woman rests under the shade of recovered metal roofs from their charred home after a fire at a slum area in Rizal Province, the Philippines on March 26, 2021. The Philippine Bureau of Fire Protection said that the fire is believed to have started from one of the houses that was being used as a gar…

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There has been a Shelter Development for Informal Settler Families (PH0054) planned before by the national government. Rizal is included in this program. As it was discontinued, it is proof that there are still informal settlers scattered throughout the province and this is an issue that we need to resolve.

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The Rizal Wind Farm is Home to 27 wind turbines at 300 meters above sea level. All the windmills can produce an estimate of 150 Gigawatt hours of electricity a year. This is a step toward more sustainable communities as wind is a renewable source that is readily available. As a result, it is a cheap source of electricity.

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The humming of the car engine was just about to lull us to sleep when I spotted a giant white fan sticking out in the distance. All of a sudden, everyone was alive, scanning the horizon, watching out for more.

If I didn't know exactly where we were at the moment, I would easily assume we had reached Bangui in Ilocos Norte. But we were just driving for over an hour from Paete, Laguna, making our way back to Manila. And this place isn't along the shores of Ilocandia but in the highlands of Rizal. Outside Ilocos Norte, it is the first of its kind in Luzon.

Located in the humble barangay of Halayhayin in Pililla, to be more precise, the Rizal Wind Farm is the newest addition to the growing list of tourism hotspots within close proximity of the capital, just two hours away. According to Alternergy Wind One Corp, the company that leads the operations of the farm, Pililla is an ideal setting for a wind farm because "it is part of a natural wind corridor created by the unique geographical features surrounding the lake."

A lane of 27 wind turbines stand atop sloping hills at 300 meters above sea level, towering over Laguna de Bay and standing along the NW-SE line to capture the Amihan from October to March, whose speeds can reach 36km/hour. Each turbine can produce 2MW. The entire farm is estimated to be able to generate almost 150 Gigawatt hours of electricity every year.

A 2015 Inquirer article reports that this $100-million project was built to supplement energy supply in Rizal and Metro Manila, the country's largest electricity demand area.

"This means the electricity generated by this wind farm only needs to travel a short distance to be consumed, ensuring all the electricity generated here will be used without grid constraint or transmission loss," Alternergy adds.

There were a dozen vehicles occupying the parking lot when we arrived, so it isn't exactly a secret anymore, but many of them simply made a stop here on the way to or from the capital. Other than gawking at the humongous fans and learning more about renewable energy, there isn't much to do here. But if you're touring parts of Rizal or Laguna, a stop here can be a refreshing addition to your itinerary. We visited at noon and couldn't stay any longer for many reasons, but if you can, stay until sunset, when the golden rays of the sun make its way through the windmills.

How to get to Rizal Wind Farm in Pililla: By Private Transportation (Driving Directions)

1. If you're coming from EDSA, drive to Manile East Road through the towns of Taytay, Angono, Binangonan, Cardona, Morong, Baras and Tanay.

2. Stay on Manila East Road until you make it past Villa Lorenza Resort (should be on your left). At the fork, turn left (the other road is Pililla-Jala-Jala-Pakil Road).

3. Keep driving until you reach another fork. The entrance should be on your left. You'll know you're there when you see a parking lot.

By Public Transportation

1. From Starmall Mandaluyong (opposite Shangri-la Plaza/Megamall on the other side of EDSA) or Araneta Center in Cubao, Quezon City, take a van or FX to Tanay Public Market in Sampaloc. (Fare: PHP 70)

2. At the market, take a tricycle to Pililla Wind Farm. (Fare: PhP 300 per way.) Make sure you negotiate for a roundtrip cost.

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PILILLA WIND FARM IN RIZAL: Windmills Near Manila

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The humming of the car engine was just about to lull us to sleep when I spotted a giant white fan sticking out in the distance. All of a sudden, everyone was alive, scanning the horizon, watching out for more.

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The Kaliwa Dam is part of the Build Build Build project of the Duterte administration. This dam is planned to be built on the municipality of Tanay, Rizal. There is an indigenous tribe that resides in this area which is called the Dumagat tribe. Building this dam means that this tribe will lose the place where they live. While the dam is beneficial to solve other SDGs such as access to clean water, authorities must formulate a plan to relocate these citizens to give them a space to reside.

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(Last of two parts)

The Dumagat-Remontado, an indigenous people who have settled in Tanay, Rizal province, thought they had seen the worst until Typhoon "Ulysses" struck in November last year. Most of their homes were on elevated terrain, but trees felled by the storm and other debris washed down the slopes ended up clogging the Daraitan river, raising the water level and flooding the nearest houses.

"We were praying for the rain to stop," Imelda Bandilla, 35, said as she recalled how she and her neighbors were caught by surprise by the neck-deep flood. They literally had to climb trees to survive.

The Bandillas lost their pets, livestock and produce, but managed to save something that they knew would be crucial if they were to recover quickly from the calamity - their 140-watt solar panel and power generator.

For clean energy advocates and climate crisis watchers, the Dumagat tribe is an example of how a poor, off-grid community highly vulnerable to the effects of global warming has found a lifeline in one of the technological solutions being offered to slow it down.

But the tribe has also gained their attention nowadays because of another threat they face:

'Ulyanin na ang panahon'

Largely isolated on the Sierra Madre, the Dumagat live off the tilled land and the forest, their rustic environs allowing little buffer from natural disasters. Waterfalls draining into the Tanay River irrigate their fields, but also causes heavy flooding during the typhoon season, according to Commissioner Rachel Herrera of the Climate Change Commission.

Changing weather patterns due to climate change increasingly "make it harder for the Dumagat to rebuild their communities," Herrera added.

Recounting Ulysses, Margie Amuin, 32, a public school teacher, said she had "never seen our house submerged in the flood like that before. It left us so traumatized that, to this day, even a little rain can make us anxious."

She likened the unpredictable seasons to a person who had gone senile: "Ulyanin na ang panahon."

Amuin blames destructive practices like deforestation for these life-disrupting changes, with the denuded mountains no longer able to substantially absorb rainwater and sediment runoffs, and leaving more areas prone to landslides. Reduced forest cover also means the loss of carbon sinks, or natural environments that can absorb carbon dioxide and help slow the pace of global warming.

Amuin's worries are backed by science: A 2020 research by scientists from the University of the Philippines (UP) found that Sierra Madre, the country's longest mountain range, experienced significant declines in closed forest covers from 2017 to 2019 despite government tree-planting efforts.

Citing satellite images, the UP study noted that since the National Greening Program was launched in 2011, "the state of the forest cover, at least in the greater Luzon region, does not show significant improvement on a large as well as regional scale."

Not one but two

The calamity that befell the Dumagat community last year caught the attention of environmental groups like the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) and 350.org. These groups initially helped the tribe rebuild their lives by donating solar panels and generators for communal use, augmenting those earlier bought by individual households.

In the course of its immersion in the community, 350.org expanded its involvement by joining the conversation about another, more existential threat to the Dumagat way of life.

Chuck Baclagon, 350.org's digital campaigner in Asia, said the Dumagat communities are located in a highly deforested valley without permanent structures that would protect them from extreme weather events.

And the situation, Baclagon said, is exacerbated by the pending "mega-infrastructure" projects that threaten to flood their community.

Within the last decade, the Dumagat have protested against not one but two major dam projects planned within the Kaliwa Watershed Forest Reserve, a conservation site in the Sierra Madre Biodiversity Corridor. Under the ancestral domain clause of the Indigeneous Peoples Rights Act of 1997, the corridor is placed in the tribe's care.

The tribe had fiercely opposed - and successfully blocked - the first one during the Benigno Aquino administration: the Laiban Dam project of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS).

Under the Duterte administation, they are again up in arms, this time against the P12.2-billion, Chinese-funded Kaliwa Dam, one of the big-ticket items under the "Build Build Build" program. Kaliwa is intended to supply 600 million liters of water to Metro Manila and nearby areas that currently depend on the Angat and Ipo dams.

In its website, the MWSS has identified areas in four municipalities that will be directly affected by the construction: Tanay and Teresa in Rizal and General Nakar and Infanta in Quezon.

In Tanay, the MWSS said, "fringes of reservoir area (will) occupy a portion of Tinipak (cave and river)" in Daraitan village.

The construction will affect about 1,465 families, according to an executive summary on the project prepared by the DENR's Environmental Management Bureau.

As with Laiban, the Dumagat are opposed to the Kaliwa Dam because it encroaches on their ancestral domain, said Octavio Pranada, one of the tribal leaders.

Under the law, the government can only start infrastructure projects on ancestral lands if it has secured a certificate of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) from the title-holders.

Social impact assessment

But despite opposition from tribal communities and environmental advocates, the project received an environmental clearance certificate (ECC) in 2019 from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

"Unfortunately for this project, securing the FPIC is a post-ECC condition," said Nestor Castro, an anthropologist designated by the DENR to lead a study assessing the "social impact" of the proposed dam.

Castro decided not to endorse the project because, in his evaluation, the MWSS "failed to secure the social acceptance of the people."

Curiously, Castro said he was not even allowed to go and see the future project site as he was told by the MWSS about the presence of communist rebels.

His final assessment thus relied heavily on petition letters from members of the Dumagat-Remontado tribe, who mostly anchored their objection in matters physical and spiritual. They said the dam would destroy not only the local biodiversity but also their sacred sites.

Among these sacred areas is the Tinipak Cave and Tinipak River, where they set up animist shrines and hold rituals imploring nature spirits for protection.

As a compromise, the MWSS said it could erect "minidams" to divert water flow and leave the sacred sites untouched.

'Valid dissent'

But ultimately, the Dumagat are afraid that their lands "would be taken away" and they "won't have anything left to pass on to [their] descendants," Pranada said.

And they are not alone in their worries.

The conservationist group Haribon estimated that at least 126 animal species harbored by the Sierra Madre, including the critically endangered Philippine Eagle (they can be found not only in Mindanao), Philippine warty pig and Philippine brown deer will lose part of their natural habitat that currently extends to the Kaliwa watershed.

At least 300 hectares of forested area will be permanently flooded, Haribon added in a study released in June 2019.

The Commission on Human Rights had also weighed in and acknowledged the Dumagat's "valid dissent."

The CHR, in a November 2019 statement, agreed that "the Kaliwa Dam Project would lead to the destruction of their ancestral domains and displacement of their populations" and that they "have the right to full disclosure of information about the project and the right to negotiate and manifest objection."
Related story: Why the ECC process for Kaliwa Dam had been faulty, according to an anthropologist
"I couldn't blame people who are very pessimistic with government projects [because] they have experienced several projects... that they have not benefited from, at least in a sustainable manner," Castro said. "The bottomline here is people's consent, because ultimately they will be the ones affected and as always been the case in many hydropower projects in the Philippines, people in the project site are asked to sacrifice."

When the groundbreaking program for the Kaliwa Dam project was held in Rizal province on June 29, a news item about the event released by the Chinese state media agency Xinhua was headlined: "Water outage in Metro Manila expected to end as Philippines-China dam project breaks ground."

This may be music to many urban ears but not to Pranada's. "Even if I am the only one left standing, I will oppose the project. Our forefathers bequeathed this land to us. I will not let it become water," he said.

--
Editor's note: This story is supported under the Climate Change Reporting Fellowship Programme by the Asian Center for Journalism and Internews' Earth Journalism Network.

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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(Last of two parts) The Dumagat-Remontado, an indigenous people who have settled in Tanay, Rizal province, thought they had seen the worst until Typhoon "Ulysses" struck in November last year. Most of their homes were on elevated terrain, but trees felled by the storm and other debris washed down the slopes ended up clogging the Daraitan river, raising the water level and flooding the nearest houses.

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A few LGUs of the province adopted climate change policies to become an "eco-town". This program focuses on introducing new livelihoods and routines to reduce and manage disaster risks. An example of this is bio-charcoal briquetting in replacement of cutting trees to produce charcoal. Creating and maintaining dams will also help prevent soil erosion and excessive flooding as these become water storage and a source of irrigation for farming.

Furthermore, management procedures such as baseline analysis, natural resources assessment, greenhouse gas (GHG) emission inventory, sectoral vulnerability and risk assessment, cost-benefit analysis of identified priority adaptation and mitigation measures, preparation of climate resilience and green growth road map, and local climate change action plan are part of the program.

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DISASTER-prone areas in Rizal have adopted climate change policies in an "eco-town" program covering five LGUs in Rizal province. An ecotown is an environmentally sustainable community that is developing to have zero emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHG), according to a Climate Change Commission. Dr. Ancha Srinivasan, ADB climate change specialist, in a statement said that among specific measures piloted in the Protected Area Management Board of the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape (UMRBPL) will primarily include bio-charcoal briquetting for Marikina, San Mateo, Rodriguez, Tanay, and Baras, species establishment and rehabilitation in Tanay, Rodriguez, and Baras, and check dams piloted in Antipolo City and San Mateo. Commissioned by the Asian Development Bank to the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), the project dubbed as "Marikina Watershed," has adopted the Climate Resilience and Green Growth Road Map developed under the ADB-funded "Climate Resilience and Green Growth in UMRBPL: Demonstrating the Ecotown Framework." The project is by and large a realization--of previously thought of--as vague or unreal concept of climate change as LGUs implement proper agricultural and environmental management practices. These activities prevent the disastrous effects of climate change such as flooding and landslides. Instead of cutting trees in the protected area to produce charcoal, natives turn to bio-charcoal briquetting as livelihood. Check dams also prevent soil erosion and excessive flooding as these become water storage and source of irrigation for farming, too. Dr. Lope B. Santos III, SEARCA program specialist, cited specific activities and undertakings involved in the eco-town development planning process. These include baseline analysis, natural resources assessment, greenhouse gas (GHG) emission inventory, sectoral vulnerability and risk assessment, cost benefit analysis of identified priority adaptation and mitigation measures, preparation of climate resilience and green growth road map and local climate change action plan ."

Another ADB and CCCC, Climate Resilience and Green Growth in Critical Watersheds were also commissioned to SEARCA and applied the same eco-town development planning process. This project covers Camarines Sur (Milaor, San Fernando, Naga City), Davao Oriental (Banganga, Boston, Cateel), and Lower Marikina (Cainta, Marikina City, Quezon City) In a related development, another project commissioned to SEARCA by the Department of Agriculture, to help strengthen the program called Adaptation and Mitigation Initiatives in Agriculture (AMIA), a landscape planning approach being pushed for sustainable agriculture and environmental management. SEARCA Director Dr. Gil C.Saguiguit Jr turned over last Dec 5, 2016 the outputs of the AMIA project to Agriculture Sec. Emmanuel Pinol. "Now, with the tools developed and technologies identified, you can (schedule planting), and you know where to avoid putting certain crops because erosion is rampant there. It's a whole thing about environmental management and even bigger than climate change," Saguiguit said. Another collaborator in AMIA is the University of the Philippines Los Banos Foundation Inc. "We should overlay (with agricultural plans) what is likely to happen in terms of disasters like typhoon," said Saguiguit. "Our hope is that our LGUs will use and maximize results of these projects in updating their Comprehensive Land Use Plan and in preparing local climate change action plan."Saguitsit stressed.

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Eco-town programs steered for Rizal LGUs

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DISASTER-prone areas in Rizal have adopted climate change policies in an "eco-town" program covering five LGUs in Rizal province. An ecotown is an environmentally sustainable community that is developing to have zero emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHG), according to a Climate Change Commission.