An 'Imagineering the City' brief case study on San Pablo City's 'City of 7 Lakes'. Master of Arts in Architectural Studies program, University of the Philippines.

1. ‘City of 7 Lakes’
SAN PABLO CITY,
Laguna, Philippines
AN OVERVIEW CASE STUDY ON
‘LANDSCAPE AS AN IMAGE’ IN
IMAGINEERING THE CITY.
Maricor L Cruz | Nov 2020
Archi 231 | UPCA - MAAS

2. San Pablo City, Laguna
● Classified as a ‘component city’
● Income Classification:1st Class
● Land Area: 197.56 sq km., largest in
the province of Laguna.
● Population (NSO, 2015): 274,643
● 80 Barangays
● Surrounded by 7 Lakes:
1. Sampaloc, 99.21 ha
2. Calibato, 27.18 ha
3. Bunot, 38.16 ha
4. Mohicap, 20.49 ha
5. Palakpakin, 54.39 ha
6. Pandin, 23.54 ha
7. Yambo, 36 ha.
All 7 Lakes are volcanic in origin.
Sources:
www.calabarzon.dilg.gov.ph
www.philatlas.com/cities
www.sanpablocitygov.ph

3. Source: Comprehensive Land Use Plan of San Pablo City 2015-2025

4. Source: www.sanpablocitygov.ph
San Pablo City

5. San Pablo City’s Seven Lakes as the focus of
its Tourism Master Plan (TMP) 2015-2020,
thus:
‘City of 7 Lakes’ has become the slogan in
marketing the city of San Pablo.
TMP’s Objectives:
● Develop the city’s seven crater lakes and
its natural environs as premier eco-
tourist attractions and destinations.
● Develop the city’s cultural and historical
landmarks.
Source: www.sanpablo.gov.ph
Sampaloc
Calibato
BunotMohicapPalakpakin
Pandin
Yambo

6. Source: www.sanpablo.gov.ph
A proposed marketing
collateral in promoting
San Pablo’s 7 Lakes

7. IMAGINEERING THE CITY OF SAN PABLO: The 7 Lakes as the Landscape Image

8. Where are the lakes and where
is the city’s Central/Poblacion??
Source: www.geocities.ws/spcecotourism/map.html
5 out of 7 Lakes are outside the Poblacion.

9. ‘City of 7 Lakes’ Challenges in Imagineering the City:
● Disconnected reality. Landscape image of ‘City of 7 Lakes’ is least visible on a
day-to-day life in the city.
Though the 7 lakes has been a great resource to the locals through its multiple uses in
irrigation, navigation, domestic, sustenance fishing, tourism and aquaculture, the
Landscape image of San Pablo city as the ‘City of 7 Lakes’ disconnects it from the reality
of the busy and growing commercial areas in Poblacion and nearby areas.
● San Pablo City as a trade hub, more than a tourist hub
Visitors are not pulled or pushed effectively to the 7 Lakes, could be due to poor tourism
and marketing implementation, or to the fact that the city is more popular as a trade
hub in between the provinces of Quezon and Batangas and neighboring towns than a
tourist hub. Hence marketing the city as a tourist spot is not the best representation of
its urban identity.
● Inconvenient road networks and lack of basic amenities within
and around the lakes, as well as going to and from the lakes, hence visiting these lakes
can be a bit disappointing.
● Increasing population and lack of waste management
The increasing population in the lakeshore areas and the various uses of the lake, with a
high number of informal settlers, the demand on the lakes as significant resource has
led to the deterioration of the water quality. At the same time, the lakes became sinks
of waste.
Source: ‘Seven Lakes Research Program Updates’, https://repository.seafdec.org.ph

10. Rehabilitation first.
‘The environmental foundation Global Nature Fund (GNF) proclaims the Philippine’s Lake
Sampaloc and the six other crater lakes in San Pablo City, Province Laguna, as the
"Threatened Lake of the Year 2014".
Lake Sampaloc and the other six crater lakes are extremely threatened by human
activities like illegal squatting along the shores and its resulting pollution, illegal fish-
pens, overfeeding and crowding fish cages as well as by infrastructures near the lake
used for commercial purposes.’
Source: www.globalnature.org/ThreatenedLake2014
‘The seven lakes are suffering
from heavy pollution caused by
the discharge of domestic wastes
directly into the bodies of water
and too many fish cages.’
Source: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/687558/p5m-for-
lake-rehabilitation#ixzz6ewhHi5Dv
‘The Sampaloc Lake, the largest of the
seven lakes in the town of San Pablo,
Laguna, will undergo massive
rehabilitation to maximize its economic
potential, an official of the Department of
Environment and Natural Resources
(DENR) said.’
Source: https://businessmirror.com.ph

11. Re-imagineering San Pablo City
as an Event instead, a trade hub -
where people from neighboring towns and provinces
exchange goods, hence the rise of the commercial
areas in the past decades, re-defining its urban
landscape.

12. In Conclusion, San Pablo City’s ‘City of 7 Lakes’, within the
‘Landscape as an image’ theory of Imagineering the City, needs
a thorough re-assessment as the ‘7 Lakes’ seems not the best
representation of its urban landscape, failing to meet the city’s
real-life identity.
To be significant, it needs to be effectively integrated in the
urban landscape, connecting all 7 lakes efficiently for example -
by convenient road networks and appropriate zonings.
San Pablo City’s ‘City of 7 Lakes’ has to be weaved into a wider
urban agenda, to succeed.
Then there are rehabilitation issues which need to be addressed,
and prioritized. Tourism and rehabilitation of the lakes cannot be
taken at the same time.
Hence, re-imagineering San Pablo city as an Event, a trade
hub, rather than a Landscape image is a viable direction, while
the rehabilitation of the 7 Lakes is taking place.