Demystifying the Practice of Urban Planning in

the Philippines by Maria Ana Pulido, CE, EnP

News & Events

Over the years urban planning as a profession in the Philippines has been obscured by quite a
number of concepts or perspectives on this particular field and possibly in other developing
countries as well. Most people would wonder how to become an urban planner in the real sense
of the word but a lot of misnomer crops up as soon as the whole range of urban planning is
discussed to those who sought to be enlightened.
Among these misnomers include how other people interchange the practice of urban planning
from environmental planning and at the same time how these two areas have been misunderstood
when tackling their sub-components to produce the desired output as determined by either a
government department or organization. Since the time that environmental planning has been
professionalised in the Philippines, it became more ambiguous in the understanding of many.
There have been quite few confusions created by practitioners and decision makers in terms of
scope, jurisdiction, and stipulations in planning and policy documents. It brings more confusion
especially so that each country uses different planning and policy terminologies although there
ought to be some expressions being used among a number of countries which are common to
Philippines.
For a starter professional whose interests are geared towards planning, they should be prompted
to distinguish the pathway they would like to take as they pursue this type of career. First things
first, they need to decide whether or not to take a specific course in Urban and Regional Planning
which is normally a postgraduate course and completion of which would give an opportunity for
someone to become an urban planner or urban and regional planner. Some others would opt
to gain experience from the workplace public or private, for example, a civil engineer or
economist whose tasks include the scope of land use planning, housing development, and policy
planning and development, among others.
Henceforth, to level off from this demystifying process within the urban planning sphere, either
the professional who has obtained the planning education or who has gained experience from the
workplace would be able to undertake a national examination to be mainstreamed in the planning
profession. Check http://www.gov.ph/2013/05/27/republic-act-no-10587/