Last October 18, 2020, UAPSA Area C opened a leadership training seminar, a webinar Entitled “Bugkos Converging diversity into oneness” for ending the celebration of World Architecture Day. The webinar is divided into two parts: Neoliberalism and the Philippines city challenges and prospects in the 21st century, while the second part focuses on Urbanization and working in the 21st- century. Ms. Mary Zaragoza, the head of the ceremony, said that the term Bugkos is a Cebuano word which means to bond. United Architect of the Philippines Student Auxiliary (UAPSA) AREA-C aims to achieve one of the core missions of UAPSA which is comradery and professionalism in all the situations that happened, with a willingness to show the world that we are all in this together. As the event officially began, AREA-C had invited Ar. Edson G. Cabalfin, an educator, architect, designer, curator, and historian. He discourses Neoliberalism and the Philippines city challenges and prospects in the 21st century. Furthermore, he discussed Neoliberalism itself and its principles then go deeper with Neoliberal Urbanism and the phenomenon. Neoliberalism is the development happening all over the world and it is based on competition that there will always be winners and losers. Ar. Cabalfin ended his speech with a hanging question “What will you do now”, Knowing that neoliberalism is affecting and shaping the country itself affecting the lives of Filipino’s across the world. The second guest speaker is Ar. Russel J. Pamulaya, a registered and licensed teacher and architect, discussing urbanization and working in the 21st century. His talk focused more on Urbanization and Contemporary structures. He defined urbanization as the population shift from rural to urban areas and how societies adapt to this change. He mentioned urbanization can occur either organically or planned. Written By: Ericka Sharll B. Pengson
“Organic urbanization is both the passing, and the new residents are facing influencing the future design and district” and the positive and adverse effect of globalization. In the 2nd part of his discussion, are the Contemporary structures wherein he showed the potentials of working abroad, he himself experienced it and saw how free they are to express themselves. The event conducted an open forum as the last part of the webinar. Organizers had gathered all questions from participants of the event and let Ar. Cabalfin and Ar. Pamulaya answered it thoughtfully by giving examples based on their experiences.