CURRENT STATE CHALLENGES

Imbalanced Distribution and Disintegrated Settlement

Calabarzon continues to attract migrants from metro manila and other

regions primarily due to the availability of employment and livelihood
opportunities and the quality of social services provision found in the region.

Vulnerabilities and Challenges of the Industry sector:

-Unstable growth brought about by weak value-adding technology and

diversification and anemic development of market niches, particularly for
manufacturing in the automotive, electronics and semiconductors.

-low rate of utilization of foreign-trade agreements brought about the low

capability of local producers and suppliers for positioning in the global value chain

-deficiency in the maintenance of industrial labor relations and compliance with

labor standards.

Vulnerabilities and Challenges of the Service Sector:

-Dependence of the IT-BPO industry to the performance of foreign markets and

its susceptibility to market shocks and uncertainties.

-absence of a global promotional strategy for Philippines services, specifically for

calabarzon tourism.

-difficulty in accessing financing opportunities for micro and small enterprises

Vulnerabilities and Challenges of Agriculture Sector:

-massive conversion reclassification of agricultural land for non-agricultural uses

-low productivity and profitability of crop and livestock farming brought about by
unstable market prices and limited supply of inputs xi.

- Uncompetitive agri-based products brought about by weak agri-industry linkages

and lack of value-adding.
-decreasing food security

- Inadequate farm infrastructure and other support facilities.

-climate change

Limits to the Use of Land and other Natural Resources

-land and natural resources are finite. In Calabarzon, the consequences of their
limited nature are evident as the competition between different, diverse and
often conflicting uses.

-For instance, due to the migration influx to the region, significant pressure has
been exerted on agricultural lands by the demand for residential and industrial
use. Conversion of agricultural lands also had a parallel impact to the region’s
forestland; the continued shrinking of primary and secondary forests have been
attributed in no. small part to the conservation of forestland to A&D. The
detrimental effects of such conversions have been exacerbated by the prevalence
of illegal logging and kaingin as a practice for upland farming.

-another challenge faced in the course of the development of calabarzon is the

strain being placed on its water resources.

Inadequate Public Service

-As with the rest of the nation, public service in calabarzon mat still be improved.
The inadequacy of the services provided by government stems from the fact that
while public funds are limited, most LGUs are still mainly Internal Revenue
Allotment (IRA) dependent. There is a lack of true fiscal reform, particularly on
revenue generation and administration and expenditure management. This would
have enable LGUs to generate own-source revenues and use fiscal transfers only
as a way to augment local fund sources.

-seamless coordination between and among LGUs and national government

agencies (NGAS) is also wanting attention. The partnership between local and
national public offices would allow for more efficient delivery of services and
preclude the duplication of efforts, a fact that is critical in light of limited public
resources.

-Lastly, public service is not exclusively a public domain. Innovative ways of using
public-private partnership should be explored, piloted, replicated and maximized
in order to attain the ultimate objective of improving the quantity and quality of
public service, not only in calabarzon but also in the entire context of Philippine
governance.