Paradoxes of Inclusion: The Current Planning Paradigm in the City of Baguio, Philippines

In the context of a Developing Country like the Philippines, a highly centralized land use planning and decision making seems to be the rule rather than the exception. As a result, land use planning theory and practice in the Cordillera particularly in Baguio City is framed by the top-down planning approach guided by the rational comprehensive paradigm leading to the emergence of problems and disconnect between government policy and indigenous people aspirations and land claims which are all qualitatively summarized in the themes of discordance between people, power, and process. It is for this purpose that this study was undertaken, primarily we seek to find out what problems do the city planners experience in the application of the existing land use planning paradigm? Considering that Baguio City is a center of indigenous cultures and how inclusive were the emergent land use planning system? In conclusion discordance in capacities, where legal and statutory provisions themselves provided the limitations to indigenous participation and involvement in planning; and discordances in spatial specific performances provided the constraints for wider and more participative involvement outside the structure of power to the disadvantage of a sustainable land use plan.

Keywords: Planning Paradigms, Paradoxes, Land use plan, Indigenous people, Discordances.