Plaridel Planning Studio Course 2010

Fifteen SCARP students worked with the Municipal Government of Plaridel, a mid-size municipality of 100,000 residents, located in Bulacan province in the Central Luzon region (Region III), known as the “rice granary” of the Philippines. Although the first “Agrarian Reform” town declare in the 1960s, much of Plaridel’s rice lands have now been converted to residential subdivisions, cemeteries, and industrial estates, owning to its proximity to Metro Manila and steady in-migrantion. Its once vibrant Public Market that sustained the livelihoods of local rural producers, petty commodity traders and small merchants has declined considerably with the coming of more modern commercial facilities, and more recently, with the construction of a huge shopping mall. Many municipalities in Bulacan have witnessed similar trends in agrarian transition, commercial growth,  rural industrialization, and solid waste issues making Plaridel a typical growing peri-urban municipality .

SCARP students worked on research, training and capacity-building projects identified by the host agencies:

(1) Business Skills Development and Financial Literacy for Micro-Enterprise

(2) Environmental Leadership: LInking Solid Waste Management, Climate Change, and Food Security

(3) Professional Skills Development for Strategic Planning, Feasibility Study, Monitoring and Evaluation