Sustainable Cities: the social variable

THE Philippines surprised the world with her unbelievable economic resilience and resurgence. Gross national product has been hitting an average of 6% and even had a quarter posting a 7.9% growth in August 2010 despite the global economic recession. Probably, the biggest factors to this economic surge are OFW remittances and the spending on proper infrastructure developments such as the RORO (roll on/roll off) which strengthened the movement of regional decentralization towards regional integration.

Regional decentralization is the spreading of political and social power to the local government units, so as to immediately identify their needs. Regional integration on the other hand is creating a synergy between local government units so that economic, environmental, and social development could be beneficial to all.