NAGA CITY – Twenty Canadian students led by a Filipino professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada are in town for a 24-day off-campus interactive planning course that is structured as a mutual learning experiment for the visiting students and the Naga City planners and residents.
Caption: CANADIAN STUDENTS IN NAGA. Graduate school students from University of British Columbia of Vancouver, Canada listen intently to lectures by Fr. Joel Tabora, S.J. president of Ateneo de Naga University and City Health Officer Butch Borja on Naga’s governance practices as part of the visiting students’ overseas city planning course sponsored by AdenU and the Naga City Government. RANDY VILLAFLOR
An advance party arrived last May 12, 2007 in time for the midterm polls. The rest of the visiting students followed on May 16 for the learning experience and interaction with Naga City officials and residents.
Willy Prilles, Naga City Planning and Development Officer and local field coordinator for the study tour, said the project is being partnered by the city government and the Ateneo de Naga University, a first for a local government unit to encourage academic exchange cooperation through a hands-on, interactive, studio style and community-based course made available to foreign students.
A series of lectures is being provided by the various department heads at city hall and the academe.
Prilles said the learning experience hoped to create a new generation of international, community development and city planners who bring their thoughtful analytical skills into creative and practical planning solutions.
Dr. Elnora Angeles, the Filipina professor at the School of Community and Regional Planning of the University of British Columbia that heads the team said they chose Naga for their study tour and learning modules because of the city’s well-known reputation as having been able to create and implement various innovative mechanisms to involve local organized groups, particularly from the marginalized sector of society, in local governance.
Afghans
While the Canadian students are still around and about to wind up their learning experience in Naga City, 13 more high-ranking officials from Afghanistan are due to arrive here for a 5-day study tour in the same hope of drawing lessons on the Naga City experience in local governance.
Dr. Malu C. Barcillano, director of the Center for Local Governance of the Ateneo de Naga University, said the visiting Afghans are particularly interested on various aspects of local governance and interaction with various organized groups of the local constituency.
They will stay from May 29 to June 1 for exposure visits.
The study tour is being organized by the Gerry Roxas Foundation, in cooperation with the Ateneo de Naga University.
Negrenses
Incidentally, more visitors are coming from Bacolod and Cebu next week to have a close-up learning experience with various local governance programs of Naga City.
A 5-man technical working group of the Local Council for the Protection of Children (LCPC) of Bacolod City are due to arrive on May 28, 2007 for a 5-day learning experience in connection with the technical group’s continuing skills enhancement on best practices on children.
In a letter to City Mayor Jesse M. Robredo, Sally Abelarde of LCPC Bacolod City said they have selected Naga City for their study tour, being the 2006 national awardee as the most child-friendly city, highly urbanized category, in the country.
The technical working group from the Visayas said they “would like to (specifically) visit (Naga’s) child-friendly projects/innovations along child survival, development, protection and participation rights.”
Cebuanos
From Cebu, another team will also be in town June 4-7, 2007 “to observe the best practices of your city in terms of child-friendly movement.”
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña told Mayor Robredo that the team’s visit “will play a paramount role in our common endeavor to uphold and sustain children’s rights.”
