The ABC of Urban Planning Workshop 2

Last Saturday, January 26, I attended the second installment of the ABC of Urban Planning Workshop organized by MLC (Movement for Livable Cebu). Architects Joseph Michael Espina and Omar Maxwell Espina were the speakers.

Archt. Joseph Espina talked about the the three spheres of influence in urban areas and the rise of civil society. Most of his talk, however, was devoted to the development of urban planning in general and in Cebu. It is the same subject matter he wrote for this latest issue of Lantawan except for the part when he stressed about the Marcos era as the golden age of planning in the Philippines. I grew up with Ferdinand Marcos as the president and I was witness to this fact. The Marcoses tried to gather all the best minds in arts and architecture in the Philippines and gave them the projects that mattered. Planning was also so centralized and orderly. Sir "Yumi" went on to say that after the Marcoses left the Filipinos somehow "overreacted." The fear for the repeat of an authoritarian rule and the new found sense of freedom definitely played a big role in the devolution of planning functions to the local government. Unfortunately the local government are not that equipped to make plans. This set up even affected the coordination with national agencies. I remember a news report of former president Arroyo telling the head of the department of public works that he does not know how to plan. It was simply because all their programs were not aligned and coordinated with her office.

I do not think we can achieve the same set up that happened in that "golden age" of planning. The Filipinos have slowly embraced the autonomy of the local governments. I think that it is important to assist the local government instead. This becomes the role of civil societies. Through them the community becomes involved in planning. The private sector should also step in. I think the only time that we can make a sensible urban plan is when these three "spheres": the public, the private, and the community, work together.

During the open forum I learned that the best way to get our local government to act on something we observed is to write a letter. Archt. Joy Onozawa told us that the government works like a corporation, nothing gets acted on unless it is written. Ms. Edna Lee also gave a very good tip: if, after a required number of days to act on community concerns, the local government still did not do anything, we should write a follow up letter and copy furnish the office of the Ombudsman.

Archt. Maswell Espina talked about the theories of urban planning. Since I teach theory of architecture, I was familiar with the content of his talk. What I found most interesting is his statement that gentrification failed because it caused the loss of "soul" of the area being developed. I am trying to "specialize" in urban renewal because I see it as a current need in the Philippines, and among the solutions I found that should be made to work is gentrification. I made a mental note to study how gentrification can be used without causing the developed area to lose its soul.

A workshop followed and I found myself mixed with some first year landscape students from USC, a lady who already lives in the United States, a lady who used to teach in USC, and a colleague in USC-CAFA. Sir Maxwell was our moderator. We discussed a lot of things but what I found more interesting is the topic sir Maxwell first brought up: landmarks. We all agreed that despite the historic landmarks in Cebu there are areas which are a "blur" when it comes to wayfinding. Our streets are simply too complicated for a naming system like New York. The lady from the US suggested using "themes". This worked in their locality. The suggestion was followed up by ideas of putting artworks or art installations as landmarks. I remember how sir Maxwell explained to us why the CAFA building has splashes of color on some walls, he said that it is supposed to help in wayfinding. If you're giving directions and you're not familiar with any of the rooms, you can just mention the color of the wall nearest to it.

The announcements at the end of the workshop were also very interesting. I was impressed on how the youth organized a parallel program to MLC. I was happy to see faces of the the names I often read about in the facebook group. Also, I could not end this blog without mentioning that the cupcakes from Anitas were really delicious. I managed to eat two. I would have wanted to eat more but the students beat me to it. Haha!

I listed many things to do as a result of that workshop.

The Business of Names and Taxes

In our meeting in UAP-Sugbu for this month, we had a speaker from DTI who talked about brand names. The topic was okay but the discussions that followed, even after the talk or the meeting, was very interesting. We discussed taxation, basically.

Someone advised that getting a TIN (Tax Identification Number) should be considered seriously because the moment you get one you are already expected to pay tax. Newly registered architects who are not planning to practice yet or are planning to work abroad can fall victim to this. Even if one does not earn income for the year, they still need to pay a mandatory tax of P500 a month if they already have the TIN.

Most architects start out as single proprietors. It's fine if they use their own name, but if they use another name as business name they should register with DTI. If the business is a partnership or a corporation, they should register their business AND their name to SEC. DTI no longer handles partnerships and corporations. The fees in DTI vary depending on where you establish your office. If you only have one office you pay only the fee assigned to barangay level. If you have a branch office outside of your barangay, you pay the corresponding fee depending on the location of the other offices, whether within city, region, or all over the Philippines. This registration is renewable every five years and the business name can be passed on to others as a legacy. One can also "upgrade" the fees anytime within the five year period if more branches are put up during that time. The great thing about this is that you can do the registration online. Just visit the website of DTI.

Regardless of the nature of business, the business name should also be registered with IPO (Intellectual Property Office) if you want exclusive use of it. Some names, although acceptable for business may not be acceptable for trademark because they are "generic". Archt. Buck Sia shared his experience with his firm "Zubu Designs". "Zubu" is the old name of Cebu and was not qualified for registration as trademark BUT the logo (the graphic representation of the company's name) can be registered.

One has to pay so many taxes for running a business, including an architectural firm. A client or a payee is expected to\withhold tax when paying you for services. This is alright, as long as he also gives you the BIR forms that shows he paid the withheld amount to BIR, and that you don't forget to show this forms when you're paying your taxes. I mentioned earlier that you are required to pay a mandatory tax of P500 if you don't have income to declare but if you do have income to declare the tax would be 3% of that income. Ideally this is processed every month.

There was also a discussion about VAT but it was quite complicated. Archt. Noel Avila told us that the issue of VAT is more significant for contractors. Businesses with income of 1.5 Million or more should include VAT. The input-output aspect of it makes it complicated so it's better to sit down with your accountant to learn more about it.

Those were probably the more significant discussions, at least for me, otherwise I would not forget. It's good that this issues are also tackled because we sometimes get preoccupied with issues relating to fees and unlawful or unethical practices we forget that he have some housekeeping to do also.

Next meeting of the chapter will have the pecha-kucha. I'm supposed to present. Let's see if I can digest my thesis into a 6-minute presentation =)

Documenting Gabaldon Schools in Dalaguete

I went to Dalaguete today. The purpose was gather data about two Gabaldon schools that were assigned to my team. "My team" basically includes Neil Menjares, Sherwin Ramosa, Marian Bas, Pepper Auman and Zee. Our task is to make a conservation management plan of the two Gabaldon schools: the Balud Elementary School, and the Obong Elementary School.

We met in Jolibee Banawa at 7:30am. We were able to leave at 8:30am because the van that the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI) provided was late. Apparently, he got delayed because of slow traffic caused by a marathon. Travel to Dalaguete took two hours. When we reached the place, we went straight to the municipal hall where our guide, Engr. Donald Lara, the municipal engineer, was already waiting for us.

The first school building we went to was the Balud Elementary School. The school head, Mr. Arnel Bustamante, opened the school for us and talked to us about the history of the school. It was a Plan-3 type Gabaldon. We did not waste any time, we went straight to work. Mayan was in charge of general photography, Zee was assigned to interview for historical background, Sherwin was assigned to take note of pathology, while the Neil and Pepper took measurements. I was supposed to assist Neil and Pepper but I ended up staying with the municipal engineer and the school head.

Balud Elementary School. (L-R) Zee, Mr. Arnel Bustamante, Engr. Donal Lara, me, Mayan, Pepper, Neil, and Siao.

After working for two hours, we took a break for lunch at a restaurant specializing in Balbacua. In going there we passed by the newly developed government center along the coast of Dalaguete. It was very clean and beautiful. Last semester, a group of Design 9 students went to Dalaguete for their charette. They were further divided into smaller group with one group focusing on the government center.

The second school is the Obong Elementary School. The school head, Mrs. Socorro Sejudo, was already waiting for us. The school building is Plan-2 type. The design is exactly the same as the one in Sumaguan, Argao, which I just documented. I therefore told the team to concentrate on the pathology and historical background. Our work therefore took only about an hour.

Obong Elementary School. (L-R) Siao, Engr. Lara, Mrs. Socorro Sejudo, me, Pepper, Mayan , and Neil.

When I planned this trip I learned about the Obong Spring. I told the guys to prepare some clothes for swimming in case we still have time in our hands. Since we finished early we decided to push through with the plan. Obong Spring was full of people and the beach nearby is not ideal for swimming because of the low tide. After taking pictures, especially with the ruins of a "baluarte" close by, we decided to go to Alcoy and took a dip in the Tingco Beach.

Obong Spring

The ruins of the watch tower, between the Obong Spring and the beach.

Along the beach in Obong

After a refreshing dip in Tingco Beach resort in Alcoy

Going back to Cebu we wanted to go to Dalaguete Church and see its interior. Engr. Lara told us about the conservation work they did there and we wanted to see it for ourselves. Unfortunately it rained hard so we decided to go straight towards Cebu. Since the rain stopped by the time we reached Argao, we dropped by Chitang's Torta store and bought some pasalubong.

The plan was to go to SM as soon as we reach Cebu but Zee and Bryan decided to go home ahead since the our route passed by their houses. In SM, the rest of us had dinner and discussed the next step. Sherwin will make the pathology report for the two schools, Zee will write the historical accounts and analyze the significance of the place. I will make the sketchup model for the two schools while Neil, Mayan, and Bryan will make drawings for the architectural documentation.

Since we will be documenting a few more Gabaldon buildings, I decided to set up a group page in Facebook where we will store all the pictures and information we gathered so that everyone has access to them.

Managing Blogs

I started blogging when I made my Multiply account. After a while I decided to shift to Blogger.com. I didn't have any particular theme then. I just wrote what I had in my mind at the time I want to write.

When I was asked to make a group page in Facebook for our college alumni, I decided to share news about  our college through blogs. Initially I linked my personal blog to it. Later on, I realized that some posts should are not for the whole alumni to read. I decided then to create a new blog: Campus Life. I got the title from a the college magazine, when the article is about the events in the college.

This year, I realized that there are some things I wanted to post on Facebook just to "get them off my chest" but may be misunderstood by some "friends." I realized that I already have so many, and so varied roster of friends in Facebook that I have to post things that are more general. Even my usual way of expressing things can be misunderstood. I therefore decided to create yet another blog. This time I experimented with Wordpress. I entitled the blog as Wit Tweet. These are shoutouts that I would rather not post in Facebook.

Finally, I created another blog entitled Design Notes. This is more for me, to help me understand what I'm studying. I always find it helpful to summarize in my own words the topics that I lecture. Since I tend to lose notebooks, I decided to post them online. Some people might also find it helpful.

So I now have four blogs to manage. Good luck to me. But I thinks I can make this work.

I also realized that I also need to manage blogs that I want to follow. I realized that clicking "follow" on the page doesn't really help. I needed the blog site to send me the new posts through my email. Luckily I found out how I can do it. I am now following two blogs so far. One blog is by an advertising students whose works I admire, the other is by a landscape architect whose posts I find very educational.

I really like it when I have time to write and read.