BY GEROME DALIPE IV
ILOILO City – The city government’s Planning and Development Office (CPDO) has a new chairperson.
The City Council approved yesterday the appointment of Ronald Cartagena as the city’s new planning officer. He replaced Engr. Butch Peñalosa, who retired last year.
An environmental planner for over a decade, Cartagena vowed to put his extensive experience to align with the city’s initiatives on a sustainable and resilient metropolis.
“We will push not just urban development, but balance and equality of life. If the quality of life in the city is good, then that could be our basis that we are indeed a progressive city,” said Cartagena.
He also said he wants to work collectively with other City Hall department heads working towards a sustainable and resilient city government.
Likewise, the new planning chief also mentioned adding some calibrations to the revised route plan of the city government during its initial implementation to integrate the city’s proposed electric bus rapid transport system.
Cartagena also thanked Mayor Jerry Treñas for trusting his capabilities and expertise in implementing Iloilo City’s urban projects and development programs.
Before his appointment in the City Hall, Cartagena served as the urban development specialist of the Cities Development Initiative for Asia (CDIA), a multi-donor trust fund managed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
While at CDIA, Cartagena managed the preparation and linking to the financing of the project preparation studies (PPS) that feature urban infrastructure projects with innovative elements.
He also undertook capacity development activities as part of the PPS and represented CDIA in networking and knowledge-sharing activities.
Cartagena has extensive experience in urban planning, capacity building and institutional development, climate change mitigation, transport policy management, and environmental planning and evaluation.
Before joining CDIA, he was a lecturer at the University of the Philippines Visayas, where he taught urban planning subjects for its diploma program.
Cartagena was also involved in city development interventions with international agencies such as ADB, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Global Green Growth Institute, and Clean Air Asia, among others.
Likewise, Cartagena served as a technical consultant for various cities and local governments in the Philippines, where he developed expertise on cross-sectoral thematic areas crucial to urban development./PN
