Davao City’s economy may be touted as one
of the strongest in Mindanao and even in the whole country but it ranked lowest
among 16 Philippine cities when it comes to road network according to a recent
World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature study.
“Out of the 16 cities Davao City has the
worst record with only nine percent of its total road network paved,” said Jose
Maria Lorenzo Tan, Vice-Chairman and the President and CEO of WWF-Philippines isaid. Tan was in the city for the presentation
of WWF’s findings on a study on the Business Risk Assessment and the Management
of Climate Change Impacts of 16 cities conducted from 2011 to 2013.
Aside from Davao, the other cities included
in the study are Baguio, Cebu, Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro, Dagupan, Laoag,
Zamboanga, Angeles, Batangas, Naga, Tacloban, Butuan, General Santos, Puerto
Princesa and Santiago.
“The city (Davao) may report it builds new
roads but these are not really paved roads,” he said. Davao has one kilometer
of paved road for every 20 square kilometer of land, he said, compared to
Puerto Princesa which has one kilometer of road for every 1.7 square kilometer
of land.
Tan said “one thing that scares me when he
(Duterte) becomes president is that we may not have any roads at all.” While he
admitted that almost everywhere within the city is paved, he said people should
go to the outskirts to see the real state of the road network.
Tan said Dabawenyos could not claim that
Davao is the largest city in terms of land area because “halos magkasing-laki
lang sila ng Puerto Princesa and the latter have kilometers of paved road.”
Davao City has a land area of 2443.61 sq km
compared to Puerto Princesa’s land area of 2539.82 sq km. Davao is however more
populated with up to 1.5 million people as of 2010 compared to Puerto Princesa
with only 222,673 people during the same period.
Population in Davao City has grown by
692,109 from 850,316 in 1990 to 1,542,425 in
2010. Population Density has increased from
348 per sq km in 1990, to an estimated 631 per sq km in 2010.
The report shows that in parallel with the
city’s population growth and expansion, the number of Motor Vehicles here has
exploded by 3.5 times, from 37,378 vehicles in 1990, to 136,283 motor vehicles
in 2010.
“Barring inner city re-development, better
traffic management and an improved road network, road congestion and degraded
air quality could be a matter for concern,” Tan said.
Tan said one cannot expect the city to pave
all its roads at one time due to finance constraints. However, he said, it
should get inspiration from Puerto Princesa where Mayor Edward Hagedorn allots
a budget for paved road annually.
“Puerto Princesa is almost as big as Davao
but its road network is much bigger. It has traditionally allotted an annual
budget for cementing its roads so they are doing it slowly but surely,” he
said.
He said it is not enough to just point a
finger at the national government
because the local government can improve its road network every year by
apportioning a little of its budget for paved roads just like Puerto Princesa.
“The paved road ratio is something that
will have to be improved. We will make sure of that by the next presidency,”
said Engr. Mario Luis Jacinto, former chief of the City Planning Office and now
consultant to the city mayor.
Jacinto said the city has not been getting
enough allocation for roads from the national government but “we will make sure
that it will be improved especially in the production areas.”
