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This paper, describing some demographic, social and economic aspects of Cebu City is the second in a series of papers on Cebu City commissioned by the Asian Urban Information Center of Kobe (AUICK). This second paper is not meant to supersede the first, "Study of the Population Dynamics and Urban Conditions, Problems and Services in Cebu City, Philippines," written by Perfecto L. Padilla and contained in the AUICK volume entitled "Population Dynamics and Urban Infrastructure: Second Round In-depth Urban Inquiry (not dated). Rather, this second paper is meant to augment the first by (a) adding issues related to the current and planned future development of Cebu City not covered in the first, (b) providing some comparisons of Cebu City with the nation as a whole and other administrative units in the country that permit to better assess the relative standing of Cebu City within the country, and (c) looking at some aspects of people's life not from the viewpoint of the City government but as reflected in available national statistics. The most detailed data source making national and subnational comparisons possible are the Philippine census reports which contain, aside from demographic information, a great deal of social, economic and cultural facts. It is the information of the 1990 Census of Population and Housing together with information provided by the 1990 Census of Barangays on which this report is based. This paper wishes to stress that the development of Cebu City can neither be understood nor planned by looking at Cebu City alone. Recent developments in and of the City have to be seen within the context of Metro Cebu, and future developments have to be planned within that context. Because of Cebu City's physiography, the development of the City in the foreseeable future will most probably bypass large portions of the area included within its boundaries and extend instead into neighboring areas. Whether and how the City itself will progress is dependent upon the manner in which symbiotic relationships between Cebu City and its neighboring areas develop. During much of the last decade, Cebu Island, Metro Cebu and Cebu City have been advertised as an important--if not the most important-economic growth pole of the country. The correctness of this claim cannot be judged by looking at Cebu alone. What happens in Cebu has to be compared first with developments elsewhere in the country. Such comparisons show that the average resident of Cebu City has many advantages over the average Filipino, but they also show that the City in terms of facilities and services it offers is not yet another Metro Manila. Local governments do not always agree with what census data show because they often present a somewhat different picture from that obtained from service or agency-collected statistics. While no assurance can be given that census data in general and Philippine census data in particular are without errors, they can provide a check on claims made by local authorities or other agencies. This paper is a background paper that touches on problems; it is neither an exposition of all problems Cebu City is facing nor a complete description of the selected issues raised. I. CEBU CITY: ITS POSITION IN THE HIERARCHY OF PHILIPPINE CITIES Cebu Island, located close to the geographic center of the Philippine Archipelago, contains one of the oldest known settlements of the Philippines. Cebu City claims to be the place at which Ferdinand Magellan entered the Philippines in 1521 and where his circumnavigation of the world, the first historically known one, ended. Today's City of Cebu received its official city charter in 1936. The 1990 Census of Population and Housing of the Philippines lists Cebu City as the sixth largest city in the country in terms of population size which, in 1990, amounted to 604,000. Three of the four larger Philippine cities are part of Metro Manila: Quezon City (1.663 mill, inhabitants in 1990), City of Manila (1.588 mill.), and Caloocan City (0.762 mill.). The other 'larger' city, Davao City, is located in southeastern Mindanao (0.846 mill.). The listing of the census hides the historical and current importance of Cebu City for the country. Traditionally, Cebu City has been the hub of the entire Visayas Region and the connecting point between Luzon and Mindanao. Culturally, economically and politically, it has always been the most important city in the country next to Manila. At the present time, the Philippines has two important and rapidly growing metropolitan areas: Metro Manila, with the City of Manila as nucleus, and Metro Cebu, with Cebu City as center. To understand the development of Cebu City, the latter has to be viewed in the context of Metro Cebu. Within this context, Cebu City is the focal point of a rapidly expanding urban sprawl: expanding in terms of population, industrial and commercial activities, transport and communications as well as social, cultural and political importance. Socially and economically, it makes little sense to any longer view Cebu City independently of its hinterland, with which it is socially and economically integrated. This 'hinterland' includes the cities of Mandaue and Lapu Lapu and the municipalities of Talisay, Minglanilla and Naga to the south of the City, Consolacion, Liloan and Compostela to the north, and Cordoba to the east.1 Though Metro Cebu has never been officially recognized as an administrative or economic unit, it has long assumed its own social and economic identity; Cebu City's administrative separation from its neighboring cities and municipalities cannot but appear as an anachronism having no longer much of a alid basis in reality. Fig.1 on the following page shows the location of Cebu Province which (except for the island groups of Bantayan to the north and the Camotes to the east) is identical with the Island of Cebu, and Fig.2 the Province of Cebu with its five cities and 48 municipalities as well as Metro Cebu and Cebu City proper. This paper will concentrate on Cebu City because it is the latter that has been selected for extensive study by AUICK. However, attempts will be made to keep the reader aware that Cebu City can neither be studied nor its future development realistically assessed without viewing it as center and integral part of Metro Cebu. Fig.1 Fig.2 1 The City of Lapu Lapu together with the Municipality of Cordoba is located on the offshore island of Mactan east of Cebu City. Mactan and Cebu Island are connected through a bridge. II. DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS 1. Population Size and Growth. In the course of the first nine decades of the 20th century, Cebu City's population grew from 46,000 (Census of 1903) to 604,000 in 1990.2 The City experienced its highest growth ever before WW ll, when the average annual intercensal growth rate reached 7.4 percent. With practically no growth during WW ll, the City resumed its growth but with a significantly reduced average annual growth rate of 3.6 percent between 1948 and 1960. Similar growth rates continued until 1980: Average annual intercensal growth rates amounted to 3.2 percent between 1960 and 1970, and 3.4 percent between 1970 and 1980. During the intercensal period 1980-90, the growth of the City declined to 2.2 percent annually. The Cebu-based area that began to outgrow Cebu City around 1960 is the area adjacent to the City, i.e. the area that today is called Metro Cebu. If we exclude Cebu City from the Metro area, then the latter grew by 4.7 percent annually between 1960-70, 4.4 percent in the following decade, and by 3.5 percent during the 1980s. All of these rates are higher than the corresponding rates of Cebu City. Fig.3 illustrates the intercensal growth between the censuses of 1970-1 980-1 990 for all ten administrative units of Metro Cebu. In the figure, the administrative units included in Metro Cebu are arranged in geographic order, beginning with Compostela to the north of Cebu City, and ending with Naga to the south. The figure shows clearly that, since 1970, Cebu City has been the slowest growing administrative unit of Metro Cebu. The figure likewise illustrates that population growth during the 1980s was lower than during the 1970s in all units closest to Cebu City, and that it was higher during the latter decade only in the peripheral units: Compostela and Liloan to the north of the City, and Naga to the south.3 What this growth pattern suggests is that the area occupied by Cebu City is getting overcrowded. Fig.3. INTERCENSAL POPULATION GROWTH 1970-80 AND Fig. 4. 1980-90 POPULATION GROWTH Fig. 5. POPULATION DENSITY IN CEBU CITY, Population growth within the City of Cebu between 1980 and 1990 varied substantially. Fig.4 shows the intercensal population growth of the 80 barangays (neighborhoods in cities, villages in the country side: the smallest administrative units in the Philippines; see Appendix Table A1). Barangays that had lost population during the 1980s are located in the southeastern (old downtown) area of the City as well as the western and northwestern edges of the mountainous areas that make up the largest portion of the City's territory (see also Appendix Table A2). 2. Population Density. The land area included inthe boundaries of Cebu City measures some 280 km2, resulting for the population of 1990 in a density of 2,160 persons per square kilometer. Compared to the population densities of other Philippine cities, this figure is rather low: Manila: 41,000 persons per km2; Mandaue City: 15,000; etc. Why should Cebu City be 'over-crowded'? Fig.5 shows clearly that the population of Cebu City is crowded into a relatively small area along the City's shore line (indicated population density in Fig.5 is 10,000 and more). In 1990, this area, composed of 33 of the City's 80 barangays and just 15 km2 in size, contained 354,000 residents, almost 60 percent of the total city population of 604,000. Actual average population density in this 'old downtown area' in 1990 was 23,300/km2. In one barangay (Suba), density was nearing 100,000/km2, and in five others, it was between 50,000 and 80,000. In the adjacent area, which in part can be described as the City's suburbs nested at the bottom of the foothills of the central mountain range that traverses the island from north to south, actual average population density was slightly in excess of 5,000/km2. This area, measuring 33 km2, contained some 166,000 inhabitants, 27 percent of the City total. The remainder of the City's area, some 230 km2 (83 percent of the total City area), contained 85,000 inhabitants, which is 14 percent of the total population. Average density in this area was 360/km2; in a number of barangays, it was below 100/km2. The uneven distribution of the population over the City's area is conditioned by the landscape. The landscape of Cebu Island is dominated by the central mountain range mentioned above. Of the land area of the Island, some 60 percent are below 200 meters in elevation, another 30 percent are between 200 and 500 meters, and the remaining 10 percent are above 500 meters. But it is not elevation that makes large portions of the area unsuitable for agricultural or other purposes; it is the steep slopes of the mountains. Slopes steeper than 45 percent cover 15 percent of the land area of Cebu, and slopes with a steepness of between 18 and 44 spercent another third. The area of Cebu City occupies one of the most mountainous parts of Cebu Island, as a slope map of the City illustrates (see Fig.6). The map clearly identifies the narrow strip of relatively level land stretching along the coast line and occupied by the 33 crowded downtown barangays and some of the less densely populated suburban barangays outlined in Fig.5. Only two types of people can afford to build their homes in the mountainous part of the City: the very rich who can afford the expensive infrastructure needed for residential dwellings, and the very poor because they are unable to afford anything better. Fig.6. SLOPE MAP, CEBU CITY Fig.7 describes the geography of Cebu City in terms of elevations and slopes. The City area shown differs from the 280 km2 quoted earlier and used in Figs.4 and 5 in that it represents the surface area of the City. The latter, in contrast to the base area, takes into account the elevations and slopes, not only the base on which the mountains are standing.4 Consequently, the surface area is larger than the base area. According to estimates made by the Office of Population Studies of the University of San Carlos, the base area of Cebu City is 280.5 km2, the surface area 300.5 km2, a difference of some seven percent. Fig. 7. SURFACE AREA OF CEBU CITY, BY ELEVATION AND SLOPE Government regulations prescribe that all sloped land with slopes of 18 percent or more is inalienable forest land owned by the government. Fig.7 indicates that less than 30 percent of Cebu City's land area (85.5 km2) is flat land, and some 60 percent of this is occupied bythe 33 crowded downtown and 1 3 suburban barangays. In the remaining 34 mountain barangays spread over more than 70 percent of the City's land area, four fifth of all land is located on slopes of 18 percent or more and (legally) not available for private use, agricultural or other. Agricultural activities that are being performed in the mountain barangays and that are not necessarily limited to flat stretches of land are extremely limited in scope because of heavy deforestation that began more than a hundred years ago. 2 The census figure of 604,630 represents the
householdpopulation, which excludes some 6,000 persons enumerated in
special areas such as hospitals, penitentiaries, military camps and
seminaries. 3. Is Cebu City Entirely "Urban"? What constitutes an urban area differs from one country to the next because national cultures and traditions differ in their perceptions of what an urban place ought to have or be, and a rural one not.5 The definition of urban currently applied in the Philippines, in use since 1970, is a rather complex one that considers population size and density, physical and social features, administrative functions, and labor force characteristics.6 Unfortunately, the definition assigns priority to demographic factors as population size and density, stating that any barangay located in a city or municipality that has an average population density of 1,000 persons or more per km2 is automatically considered urban. Because of the present definition of urban and the fact that the average population density in the City area is above 1,000/km2, every barangay in the City, including the most remote and undeveloped one, in which no person is engaged in anything but agriculture, is urban. Table 1 compares the 46 downtown and suburban barangays of Cebu City with the City's 34 mountain barangays in terms of the facilities that, according to the Philippine definition, determine the classification of a barangay as urban. Table 1. PERCENT OF BARANGAYS WITH SELECTED
INFRASTRUCTURES, The differences between downtown and mountain barangays in Cebu City are considerable. The advantage of mountain over downtown barangays with respect to the presence of an elementary school is more apparent than real. Not every downtown barangay, especially when it is small in area, contains a school; large city schools, much better equipped than small barangay schools, usually serve clusters of barangays, all of them in walking distance from the schools. Because the mountain barangays located on City territory possess little or nothing qualifying them as urban place, the City government has set up its own (unofficial but more realistic) classification of urban barangays in the City. This classification excludes almost all of the mountain barangays. The unfortunate consequence suffered by the residents of the unofficially rural barangays in the City is that they are excluded from official rural development programs of the central government.7 The inaccessibility of the largest portion of the City territory as result of rough terrain and lack of roads and other infrastructures explains why the hinterlands of the City's core area do not offer themselves for an expansion of the City and why it is the coastal stretches of the surrounding cities and municipalities in Metro Cebu that offer the best possibilities for an expansion of the Metro Cebu area. 5 For listings of definitions of urban, see the
United Nations Demographic Yearbooks. 4. Fertility. The 1990 fertility (as well as mortality) data reported by Padilla in his Cebu paper, obtained from the Cebu City Health Office, suffer from the fact that not all vital events registered in Cebu City occurred to persons who are residents of the City. Births and deaths occurring in City hospitals and clinics are registered in these facilities and tend to inflate the birth (and death) rates based on them. Separating registration records of non-residents from those of residents is a tedious task and usually not performed. The fertility data presented here are based on the 1990 Census which inquired into the number of births to households that occurred in the one-year period immediately preceding the census (1 May 1989 - 30 April 1990). For the Province of Cebu, the reported number of births result in a crude birth rate of 33.5 per 1,000 population for the 1989-90 period. The rate for Cebu City is 32.1. A second fertility measure that can be obtained from the census is a kind of 'surrogate' total fertility rate: the average parity of ever married women 45-49 years of age.8 For Cebu Province, the 1990 Census yields an average parity of ever married women of 4.98; for Cebu City, the corresponding rate is by almost one child smaller: 4.19. For the urban portion of Cebu Province, the average parity of ever married women 45-49 was by about three fourth of a child lower than the parity of rural women (4.60 versus 5.39). Even though Cebu City is officially urban in its entirety, fertility differs substantially between the downtown and mountain barangays. An approximate way of assessing this difference is illustrated in Fig.8. On its vertical axis, the scatter diagram shows the child-woman ratio, an age-structural measure defined as the ratio of children under five years of age to women of childbearing age (15-49). The latter reflects, in an approximate manner, the level of fertility during the preceding five years.9 The horizontal axis of the diagram indicates the 1980-90 intercensal population growth (in percent). The horizontal and vertical lines dividing the diagram into four quadrants represent the City's average intercensal growth and average child woman ratio. Inside the diagram, the 80 barangays of Cebu City are ordered by child-woman ratio and intercensal growth. High growth and fertility are defined as being above the average for the City, and low growth and fertility as being below the average. Fig.8. BARANGAYS, BY 1980-90 GROWTH & 1990
CHILD/WOMAN RATIO A comparison of Fig.8 with Appendix Fig.1 reveals that (a) the barangays in the upper (high fertility) part of the diagram are the mountain barangays, (b) the barangays in the left lower (low fertility, low growth) quadrant the crowded downtown barangays, and (c) the barangays in the right lower (low fertility, high growth) quadrant mainly those labeled earlier as suburban. Fig.9 displays the age structures and selected demographic parameters of the four types of population in Cebu City. Striking are the fertility differences between the mountain and downtown barangays (upper and lower panels), and the growth differences between the barangays in the left and right panels of the Figure. A comparison of the age structures of the fast and slowly growing mountain as well as downtown barangays suggests outmigration of persons in the best working ages as reason for the slow growth of some of the mountain barangays, and low fertility plus outmigration (as indicated by the population decline in a number of 'old city' areas in recent years) for the crowded downtown barangays. Fig.9 likewise suggests that the current Philippine definition of urban that (not only in Cebu City but also elsewhere) combines urban barangays with others that are still rural in character and display rural fertility levels makes the distinction between urban and rural fertility in the country somewhat dubious. If this suggestion is correct, then the urban fertility level in the Philippines may be below the officially recognized mark. Fig.9. CEBU CITY POPULATIONS, BY GROWTH-FERTILITY QUADRANTS 8 This rate measures the total fertility of a
cohort of women who that had reached the end of childbearing in 1990.
If fertility declined during the reproductive period of these women,
i.e., between 1960 and 1990, as it did in the Philippines, the average
parity of the members of this cohort will be higher than the total
fertility rate of a cross-section of women in 1990. A second difference
between the average parity of ever married women and the commonly
calculated total fertility rate which tends to make the former somewhat
higher than the latter is that the average parity measure as reported
by the census refers to ever-married women only, while the usual TFR
takes into account all women regardless of marital status. 5. Mortality. Current mortality (and morbidity) data in the Philippines suffer from serious shortcomings. According to the latest estimates, the 1990 level of death registration in the country was only 70 percent complete. More than one half of all unreported deaths had occurred to children under one year of age, and deaths of women had remained unreported more frequently than death of males. Because of existing data deficiencies, the Philippines has still to rely on indirect estimates of life tables. In 1994, such estimates were produced for all regions and provinces of the country.10 One year later, the National Statistical Coordination Board of the Philippines commissioned the estimation of life tables for the 60 cities extant in the Philippines at the time of the 1990 Census.11 Below, the estimated 1990 life tables for Cebu City males and females are reproduced. 1990 HALE LIFE TABLE, CEBU CITY 1990 FEMALE LIFE TABLE, CEBU CITY Compared to the Philippine as a whole and Cebu Province, the estimated mortality level of Cebu City is comparatively low, as Table 4 documents. The crude death rates implied in the age-specific death rates listed in the life tables are 5.3 for males, and 4.2 for females. These extremely low crude rates are primarily the result of the young population of the City. Table 4. SELECTED ESTIMATED MORTALITY
PARAMETERS, The better-than-average health situation in Cebu is related to the fact that, after Metro Manila, Cebu City contains the second-largest concentration of medical facilities and personnel in the country which provide better than average medical care. In 1990, six large hospitals (three governmental and three private) aside from scores of smaller clinics and special medical facilities were located in the City. Four medical schools in the City supply scores of new doctors, and almost every one of Cebu City's six universities (aside from other a number of medical establishments) maintains a college of nursing. Fig.10. An examination of death certificates for Cebu City residents who had died in 1990 revealed that respiratory diseases were the predominant causes of death in the City.12 The second, third and fourth leading causes of death appearing on the certificates are heart diseases, circulatory & vascular diseases, and various kinds of cancer. The ranking of the various causes suggests that the Epidemiological Transition, i.e., the transition from a predominance of communicable to non-communicable diseases, is even in urban environments of the Philippines still some ways off from being completed. 10 See Flieger, Wilhelm, and J. Cabigon. Life
Table Estimates for the Philippines, Its Regions and Provinces, by Sex:
1970, 1980 & 1990. Published by the Department of Health, Republic
of the Philippines, with the Assistance of the United States Agency for
International Development. Manila, 1994 6. Internal Migration In the Philippines, as in most countries permitting free movements of their citizens, hardly any effort is being made, systematic or otherwise, to monitor internal migration. In consequence, no complete data base for the analysis of internal migration in the Philippines exists. There has likewise never been any national migration survey. The most comprehensive current information on internal migration is contained in the 1990 Census of Population and Housing, in which people were asked about their residence five years earlier. Unfortunately, published data in either print or computerized files tell the data user only whether a person had lived in 1985 in the same municipality or city in which he/she was currently living, or in another and, if the answer was 'other', whether it was in the same or a different province. From a ten-percent public use file of the 1990 Census, which has been made available, the barangay codes have been removed, making it impossible to trace movements within cities and municipalities. In short, there are few data sources on migration, and those that do exist have been further limited in their usefulness. Padilla, in his Cebu City paper produced for the second-round in-depth urban inquiry of AUICK, attemptsto dissect annual population growth into growth stemming from natural increase and from net migration. His figures imply that there was hardly any growth due to migration during the period 1981 through 1983, and then sudden migration surges occurred in 1985 and again in 1989.13 While such erratic migration behavior is not impossible, it is rather unlikely and probably caused by the population projection method applied as well as the registered birth and death figures used. As stated earlier, the latter represent most likely overestimates.14 Padilla's figures for the entire decade of the 1980s suggest that net migration was not an overwhelming factor with respect to the growth of Cebu City, contributing just 15,000 persons to the overall population growth which added some 120,000 persons to the City. It is difficult to reconcile Padilla's figures with other census information. According to the 1990 Census, ca. 37,000 residents of Cebu City five and older in 1990 had lived elsewhere in 1985, i.e., six percent of the total city population. These 37,000 represent the migrants of the 1985-90 period still in Cebu City in 1990. Padilla's estimate for the same period is 13,549. The demographic development of Cebu City has to be viewed within the context of Metro Cebu (cf. p.1 ff.). Cebu City is not only part of this larger unit but alsothe most crowded as far as land area suitable for urban sprawl is concerned. As pointed out, Cebu City's population growth rate was the smallest of all Metro Cebu administrative units. That most Metro Cebu inmigrants did not settle in Cebu City but in the other nine cities and municipalities becomes evident from an examination of census data for Metro Cebu. In 1990, Metro Cebu contained more than 95,000 persons five and older who had not resided in Metro Cebu in 1985, close to 9 percent of all persons over age 5 in the Metro area. Of these, the 37,000 Cebu City migrants represent less than 40 percent, Today, it is Metro Cebu that attracts internal migrants, not necessarily Cebu City. Of all 1985-90 internal migrants to Metro Cebu who still resided there in 1990, some 55 percent were females; almost exactly one half of all migrants had come from other parts of Cebu Province, the other half from other provinces. Earlier in this report, Metro Cebu has been called the second-largest metro area in the Philippines. This position of Metro Cebu has implications for the migration of highly skilled or professional workers. Highly trained people with origins outside of Cebu, who underwent training in Cebu City or Metro Cebu, usually search for employment first in the Cebu area. But for many of these, the ultimate aim is to either 'move on' to Metro Manila, where salariestend to be higher and the prestige greater, or to migrate abroad. While the Philippines is known as a supplier of trained manpower and professionals to other countries, the skilled manpower of a 'second' city like Cebu is drained by two competitors: Metro Manila and foreign countries. 13 Perfecto L. Padilla, op.cit, p. VIM2, Table 6. 7. Age Composition As result of very high fertility in the past and still high fertility at present, the Philippines has a young population and a relatively smooth age pyramid. By contrast, the age structures of cities are marked by a narrowing base because of greater fertility decline compared to that of rural areas, and a bulging middle portion as result of inmigrating young persons in search of education or jobs. Fig.11 confirms that the age structures of Cebu City as well as Metro Cebu display these urban characteristics. Their bases are narrow; there is relatively little difference in the sizes of the youngest age groups under 15; there is, especially on the female side, a protruding bulge for ages 15 to 29, and there are relatively few old people. The narrow bases point to declining fertility, the protrusions for ages 15-29 to inmigration of young people, and the comparatively few old people suggest that many old people retire to their rural home barangays. Fig. 11. AGE STRUCTURES OF CEBU CITY, METRO
CEBU, Of equal interest as the current age-structural situation is the direction of the change that the age structure is undergoing. Table 5 displays the trends of the youth and old-age dependency ratios since 1970 for the total Province of Cebu and Cebu City. In both areas, youth dependency has declined over time as result of declining fertility, but it has done so faster and to lower levels in Cebu City than in the Province as a whole. Old-age dependency, on the other hand, has increased in both areas but to higher levels in the Province. Though the aging of the population is not yet a very noticeable phenomenon in either rural or urban areas of the Philippines, the process of aging has been set into motion and preparations have to be made for its consequences: social security for the aged, health care for the aged, housing for the aged, social roles for the aged, etc. On the farms, it traditionally has been the extended family that has taken care of its elderly. It has provided not only care but also preserved a respected role for the elderly who remained in charge of the farm and the extended family for as long as they could. What will happen to the elderly living in a city where there is nothing left to do for him or her after retirement, where government-mandated health insurance is still minimal, where health costs are excessive, and where in many in- stances there is no more extended family around to fall back on? Table 5. YOUTH AND OLD-AGE DEPENDENCY RATIOS:
CEBU PROVINCE AND 8. Households In 1990, Cebu City contained 1 14,708 households. Average household size was 5.3 persons, identical with the average national household size, and very close to average household size in Cebu Province (5.2). The large average household size is brought about not only by the high fertility of the past and the present but also through household extension. In 1990, one fourth of all households in the country were extended households, most of them containing, in addition to the family nucleus, either members of the household head's parent generation and/or the generation of the head's children or grandchildren. Table 6 compares household size for the entire Philippines with household size in Cebu City. While the indicated differences are small, they do indicate that Cebu City contains somewhat larger proportions of smaller households than the country does on the average. The main reason for the somewhat smaller households is that Cebu City has a younger age structure than the country as a whole and, for that reason, more young families. Table 6. HOUSEHOLDS, BY NUMBER OF MEMBERS: III. SOCIOECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS 1. Education The development of any city, its importance as cultural social, commercial and political center depends on the educational level of its population. Within the Asian context, the Philippines is known as a country with a high literacy rate. The main problem with the concept of literacy is that it may include an absolute minimum of education or even no education at all. In the Philippine context, a person is literate if he/she can read and write a simple sentence in any language. Table 7 shows the literacy rates of the Philippine population in 1990, of Cebu Province, and of Cebu City. The figures in Table 7 make clear that literacy is high everywhere and that Cebu Province does not differ from the Philippines as a whole: the literacy rate of the population of Cebu City is on a par with that of the country's urban population. A more detailed study of the 1990 Census will show that gender differences in literacy are practically non-existent. The only important difference is that between the urban and rural population. A more definitive measure of education is educational attainment. Table 8 displays the educational attainment of the population 7 and older of Cebu City at the time of the 1990 Census, and Fig.12 compares the educational level of Cebu City with that of Cebu Province and the entire country. The proportion of college-educated persons in the City exceeds that of the country and the province by a factor of almost 2, mirroring the presence of seven universities and numerous specialized smaller colleges in the City as well as the fact that many who come to Cebu City for an education remain there after graduation. The proportion of persons 7 and older with no formal education is half the size of the national average. Table 7. PERCENT OF POPULATION 10 YEARS AND
OLDER LITERATE. Table 8. EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT OF Fig. 12. EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT OF PERSONS 2. Employment Large cities are commonly believed to offer plenty of job opportunities and, for that reason, attract many migrants in search of jobs, or better jobs. That Cebu City did meet that expectation only partially in 1990 is documented in Table 9. Table 9. PERCENT OF POPULATION IN LABOR FORCE, Table 9 divides the labor force into members under age 25 and above age 25. The first of these groups contains most of the new entrants into the labor force, i.e;, those who are looking for or having their first jobs, and the latter group represents the experienced labor force. The difficulty of finding a first job after education or training is reflected in the rather high unemployment rates of new entrants into the labor force. For women, unemployment rates in Cebu City are below the corresponding national unemployment rate for both new and experienced female workers, thus meeting the common expectations of job seekers arriving in Cebu City from elsewhere; for men, a tendency in the opposite direction is indicated. This is so despite the fact that the labor force participation rate of young males in Cebu City is far below the national rate (47 percent against 77 percent), while for females, both young and old, the opposite holds. 3.Housing Philippine censuses provide information on housing quality (construction materials of walls, roofing and flooring), residential crowding (floor space per household member), and household facilities. With respect to housing quality, the information of the 1990 Census permits to divide dwelling units into constructions of (1) solid materials, (2) semi-solid materials, (3) intermediate type constructions, i.e., mixtures of solid and semi-solid materials, and (4) make-shift constructions. Solid materials include concrete, bricks, stones, wood and galvanized iron for walls, and galvanized iron, tiles (concrete or clay) and wood for roofs. Semi-solid materials are bamboo, sawali, cogon, nipa, and anihaw. Makeshift buildings are entirely put together from salvaged materials of all kinds, including cardboard and jute. In the Philippines in 1990, approximately 50 percent of all dwelling units were of solid construction, 30 percent of semi-solid construction, and ca. 20 percent were of the intermediate type. The least adequate housing aside from no housing at all is huts or shacks constructed entirely from scrap materials. Nationwide in 1990, some 0.7 percent of all Filipino households lived In such huts. Makeshift huts are primarily an urban phenomenon. The proportion of urban households crowded into makeshift housing was approximately one percent. The 1990 Census of Housing counted 109,097 residential dwelling units in Cebu City.15 Of these, close to 70 percent were of solid construction, 13 percent of semi-solid, 16 percent of intermediate construction, and 1.5 percent had been put together from scrap materials. 15 Government-owned dwelling units are rare in the Philippines and, for statistical purposes, of little importance. 4. Household Facilities a. Energy. Households are in need of energy primarily for lighting and cooking. Nationwide in 1990, some 55 percent of all households used electricity as their main energy for lighting. In Cebu City, the proportion of households using electricity was substantially higher: 83 percent. Some 17 of the City's 34 mountain barangays reported in 1990 to be without electricity connection. Living in a barangay with electricity connection and using electricity are two different things. According to the 1990 Census of Barangays, some 60 percent of the approximately 42,000 barangays in the Philippines had electricity connections, but of the 8.8 million residential households in these barangays, 2.5 million did not use it. In Cebu City, 63 out of 80 barangays with close to 110,000 households had access to electricity, but only 55 percent of these households (ca. 63,000) actually used it; some 40 percent did not.16 Table 10. PERCENT OF HOUSEHOLDS, BY TYPE The second most important source of light in Cebu City was kerosene, used by 15 percent of all households. The most important cooking fuel used in the Philippines is wood, utilized by about one third of all households nationwide, and by almost twice that proportion of households in Cebu City. Electricity is used as cooking fuel by a few households only who can afford the high costs connected with it. Most well-to-do households rely on LPG (liquefied petroleum), and many middle-class households on kerosene. Table 11. PERCENT OF HOUSEHOLDS. BY TYPE Households relying on wood or charcoal usually cook on open fire places and thereby contribute significantly to air pollution and the spread of respiratory illnesses. Aside from being untidy and unhealthy, the widespread use of firewood has likewise contributed to the depletion of the country's forest resources and the failure of many a reforestation project. b. Drinking Water. The water situation on the Island of Cebu and, with it, the City of Cebu, has deteriorated ever since the by now almost complete deforestation of the island was begun around the end of the last century. The missing forest cover has resulted in the erosion of the top soil and turned the island into a largely barren rock. In consequence, agricultural production on the island is extremely poor. For a couple of decades, salt water has seeped into the ground water of the island and made the latter unfit for drinking. Today, drinking water has to be brought to the City from far away, and plans are being contemplated to connect Cebu Island with the neighboring Island of Bohol through underwater pipes. The 1990 Census of the Philippines distinguishes between 8 different sources of drinking water, 5 of which are considered as delivering safe drinking water, and 3 not. In Table 12, the 8 water sources mentioned in the census reports are combined into 6, the first 3 of which are considered safe.17 As Table 12 shows, about one fourth of all households nationwide obtains its drinking water from unsafe sources; in Cebu City, the proportion is much lower: 11 percent. Two thirds of all city residents are supplied with water by the Metropolitan Cebu Water District, which draws its supplies from a number of watersheds, some of which are located in the mountains behind the built-up lowland area of the City. Recently, a civic movement has been organized under the name "Cebu United for Sustained Water Supply", which is taking a militant stance against city and province officials intending to built a golf course and other structures in one of the City's watersheds. The term 'peddler' refers to water vendors, who usually ride through towns on tricycles and sell water to those city residents living a good distance from the next communal water source. Water peddling is primarily an urban phenomenon. According to health officials, the peddled water is the least safe because of (1) the unknown source from which it originates, and (2) its possible contamination during the transport. Table 12. PERCENT OF HOUSEHOLDS, BY TYPE c. Waste Disposal. Waste disposal refers to both, the disposal of human waste and the disposal of household garbage, improper disposal of waste of any kind represents one of the greatest public health hazards in the country, and in this respect, Cebu City is no exception. As in the case of water sources, the Philippine Census distinguishes between hygienically safe and unsafe types of toilets: Included among the first are facilities such as household-owned or household-shared water-sealed toilets connected to either public sewerage systems, septic tanks or other kinds of depositories. Less sanitary toilet types include, in descending order of quality, pits which may or may not be covered, pail- or similar systems, and 'no facility', the latter often referred to as 'wrap and throw' method'. Table 13. PERCENT OF HOUSEHOLDS, BY TYPE OF Less than one half of all Philippine households were in possession of a water-sealed toilet for exclusively private use, and in Cebu City, the proportion of such households was barely above one half (compared to 91 percent in Metro Manila!). Domestic waste is created primarily in the context of household food preparation, cooking, consumption of food and such other household chores as cleaning, gardening, etc. Garbage collection by public conveyance is an urban phenomenon. As Table 14 shows, nationwide, only one sixth of all households could rely on this method of disposal. By contrast, almost one half of all households in Cebu City could avail of this type of disposal. The second most frequently used manner of garbage disposal in the City was burning, country-wide the most popular method. The third prominent method in Cebu City in 1990 was garbage dumping in open pits or any open spaces-or just on the street. Of the three methods of garbage disposal practiced by 95 percent of all households in Cebu City, only the first (public collection), when properly executed and the garbage is deposited in a not health-endangering place and manner, meets standards of public health. The third method (garbage dumping) is always health-threatening, and the second (burning) tends to be so if applied in a densely populated neighborhood. Table 14 PERCENT OF HOUSEHOLDS, BY TYPE OF d. Household Conveniences. Cebu City is the transportation and communication center of the central part of the Philippines (Visayas) and the connecting link between the country's two large islands of Luzon and Mindanao. The City is home to more than a dozen radio stations and connected to the TV stations in Manila and the world via satellite dishes that feed their signals to the ever growing number of cable TV companies. About two years ago, Internet and similar electronic communication highways began to enter the City. In 1990, some 80 percent of all Cebu City households owned one or more radios, almost 60 percent owned a TV, and one third a refrigerator. In terms of all of these conveniences as well as residential phone connections and the possession of motor vehicles, Cebu City was far above the national average, but still lagging behind Metro Manila with respect to household telephone connections and number of motor vehicles and TVs per household. The proportion of households with phone appears somewhat small in view of the fact that more than 95 percent of all phone connections in the country were in urban areas. Table 15 PERCENT OF HOUSEHOLDS, BY SELECTED 16 The remaining 5 percent of all Cebu City
households lived in the 17 mountain barangays without electricity
connections. Table A1.THE POLPULATION OF CEBU CITY, 1990 TABLE A2. THE POPULATION OF METRO CEBU, 1990 Fig. A1. BARANGAYS OF CEBU CITY: 1990 Fig. A2. BARANGAYS WITH FAST GROWING AND
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