Research

As the national university, we champion and support innovative research that addresses the country’s most pressing challenges.

10 Nov 2023

UP Los Baños

The local Chinese population helped make Iloilo the textile capital of the Philippines in the 19th century

Textiles played a significant role in Philippine economic history. In this study, archival materials and records have shown that the...

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07 Nov 2023

UP Cebu

Knowing whether initiatives are employee-led, leader-led, organization-led or HR-led can increase organization citizenship behavior in the service industry

Most studies about organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) focus on actions that employees, supervisors, or owners of organizations should exhibit. OCB...

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03 Nov 2023

UP Cebu

Public lecture to tackle challenges to democracy and politics in a post-truth era

The University of the Philippines Cebu Central Visayas Studies and College of Social Sciences in cooperation with the Critical Policy...

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27 Oct 2023

UP Diliman

First and most extensive study in the Philippines shows diagnostic accuracy of a multivariate index assay alone and in combination with ovarian imaging for ovarian cancer prediction

This study determined the utility of ovarian imaging and a second-generation multivariate index assay in predicting  the risk of ovarian...

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23 Oct 2023

UP Baguio

Covid-19 caused more psychological distress on women and young people than older persons

The results of this study represent 14,133 participants across 6 continents, with data from 19 nations. The most consistent finding...

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19 Oct 2023

UP Diliman, UP System

Children as young as two months are exposed to digital media for an average of two hours every day

The dramatic increase in the touchscreen exposure of very young children has raised issues regarding the potentials and perils that...

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11 Oct 2023

UP

Caves require greater management as important, but seldom studied, nonrenewable resources

Caves are significant nonrenewable resources that provide a variety of ecosystem services with varying sensitivities to disturbance. In the Philippines,...

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10 Oct 2023

UP Los Baños, UP Open University

Small islands in Northern Samar are linked by political, economic and social reasons

The Philippines as an archipelago is made up of many islands. Most of these islands are characterized as small, isolated,...

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06 Oct 2023

UP Los Baños

Online learning had adverse effects on the well-being and mental health of STEM students

This research adds to the growing body of literature pertaining to the extent and consequences of fully online
learning to Science,...

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05 Oct 2023

UP Manila

Teachers are still hesitant to talk about sex education due to cultural and religious factors

Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) enables children and young people to learn about the cognitive, emotional, physical, and social characteristics of...

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02 Oct 2023

UP Manila

Smart-city projects will not “reduce inequality, hold policymakers accountable or address the root causes of Manila’s problems”

The Philippines is said to fall behind when it comes to adopting digital technologies and urged to catch up with...

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14 Sep 2023

UP Diliman

The location and number of language areas in the brain differ among multilingual brain tumor patients

The location of the speech area in the brain may be different or located in several sites in patients who...

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Research

The measurement of cities and municipalities competitiveness in the Philippines has been put in place by the Department of Trade and Industry since 2013. However, its use as a spatial planning parameter is lacking in the literature. This paper reviewed the factors that drive competitiveness. The research revealed that “economic dynamism” appeared at the top of the factors that contributed to competitiveness and influenced regional development. Given urban and regional planning theories, metropolitan areas were chosen as the most appropriate case study sites that exhibit economic dynamism. The study revealed that the “Economic Dynamism Index” or EDi of cities and municipalities were spatially correlated, indicative of their clustering pattern in the economic space. The clustering pattern was determined by treating the EDi as a spatial attribute in the major metropolitan case study areas. Using Moran’s I global spatial autocorrelation analysis, the clustering pattern of cities and municipalities observed through the GIS map was validated by the 99% significance in the spatial statistics of the EDi dataset. This suggests that “complementation” among cities and municipalities exists rather than competition. Thus, sustainable regional spatial/economic development strategies can be reformulated, given the spatial interactions of areas with higher EDi with the less endowed cities/municipalities at the periphery.

In terms of its significance to urban and regional planning literature, the research reinforces the theoretical assumptions of spatial dependence among cities following the Theory of Competitive Advantage, Growth Pole Theory, and Theory of Uneven Growth. For local development planning, the study serves to reformulate or enhance regional development strategies introduced in the medium-term (every six years) by the central planning unit – the National Economic and Development Authority.

The spatial association of cities in terms of the economic dynamism of cities, measured through the Economic Dynamism Index, described in the study serves as a guide to local planning offices of the local government units (LGUs) and regional groupings of the national government agencies in preparing development plans. For the LGUs, the research provides input to the formulation of the mandated local development plans espoused in the Local Government Code (Republic Act 7160) to include the Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) and the Comprehensive Development Plan. These plans will cushion the negative implication of “backwash/polarization” to less
competitive cities and municipalities regardless of their income class.

Authors: Ronnie H. Encarnacion, Dina C. Magnaye and Annlouise Genevieve M. Castro (School of Urban and Regional Planning, University of the Philippines Diliman)