Typhoon lessons - the role of the real estate industry

Philippine Allied Chamber of Real Estate Brokers and Licensed Salesmen (Philacre, Inc) president Anthony "Tonton" Leuterio called me over the phone last week that their group was deeply moved over the tragedy that hit Metro Manila and most of the provinces in Northern Luzon brought about by the two ravaging typhoons, Ondoy and Pepeng, which sweeped the area during the past two weeks. According to Tonton, Philacre will send a press announcement next week to remind and caution its members and the public not to support property developers "whose interest is just to make profit without being mindful of their responsibility to protect its residents, the immediate environment and the community at large."

Tonton further stressed the need to revisit and tighten the country's urban planning policies to quell the wild and unrestrained property developments specially in the urban centers. "What happened recently is tragic that we are called to a deep reflection on the state of our urban planning and management in the country that is totally unprepared to handle or the least mitigate the impact of calamities of such magnitude."

Corollary to what Tonton just pointed, it makes me wonder if we could weather the storm had the typhoon landed on Cebu and its neighboring provinces. But I seriously think that Cebu would have suffered more terribly if it did. Cebu is not immune to floods. As a matter of fact, even on ordinary days, it is not an unusual sight to see jammed roads during a heavy outpour especially in cities of Mandaue and LapuLapu and in commercial and suburban districts of Cebu city. The same can be observed in the municipalities of Consolacion, Talisay and Minglanilla. Don't forget, too, that early this year the towns Santander, Samboan and Carcar reeled from a devasting flood that left dozens of families homeless and yet there wasn't any storm that time.

It's true. We have no control over the forces of nature. But are we to resign or live with the fact that we are unable to rise above it? Harsh as they were, the series of cataclysm that befell us should bring us to our waking senses that we cannot just charge them to experience alone. We have suffered enough already - economically and psychologically - and I don't see any good reason why do we have to repeatedly go through the same lessons over again.

And yes, natural disasters cannot be prevented but can be mitigated. One area that should be given review is the transparency in land use and development.

Andy Mañalac, president of National Real Estate Association (NREA) suggests that developers should make a full disclosure of the impact of a project in a community and the risks of such projects in times of calamities. It's a good, timely and welcome suggestion. The current practice in the country is that developers only disclose the glamor of living in one of their condominiums or posh residences sans the downsides (e.g., like if the area is prone to floods or the level of soil erosion, etc)     

Mañalac cites that full disclosure is a standard practice in the United States which forms part in any real estate transaction. Thus, there is no reason why it cannot be adopted here. I can't also find any good reason for developers to oppose the idea as this will encourage them to look for safer areas to develop.     

Also, it is not enough for developers to replace the greens being lost during development, government should legislate that five or ten percent of the property being developed be used or dedicated to the growing of trees and flood resisting plants.

And finally, I am in favor of legislating environment taxes. Developments have not only gone ashore it has literally gone up as well. Developers are mostly responsible for the "urbanization" of our mountains and coastlines and yet not one program is being established by either government or real estate developers to recover the environmental losses out of these urbanization. Thus, environment taxes will serve to support environment management programs of the government and urban reforestation.

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