Development Issues of Bunot Lake : The Lesser Lake Among the Seven Lakes of San Pablo City, Philippines

Bunot Lake has the worst condition compared to the rest of the seven crater lakes of San Pablo City. It is the most polluted one, oversaturated by fish pens/cages, and has the highest concentration of illegal settlements. These attributes strongly suggest that Bunot Lake takes precedence in the agenda of its two administrative agencies — the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) and the City Government. In practice, however, Bunot Lake is wanting of key development initiatives and programs, and seems to be a lower priority for the LLDA and the City Government. This reality is perplexing since the lake is very near the urban center, closest to the premier lake (i.e. Sampaloc Lake), and the site of the first commercial production of tilapia in floating cages in the city. Under this context, this paper looks into and analyzes the immediate development issues in Bunot Lake. The study contends that Bunot Lake should be given preference by the LLDA and the City Government, specifically by: (1) modifying their model-template approach; and (2) taking steps to tackle a basic need of Bunot Lake — the formulation of a zoning-development plan. Furthermore, the study is also designed to directly address the lacuna in Philippine lake studies, the paucity of research under the social science perspective (being dominated by the natural science perspective) and on small lakes (being highly concentrated on the largest lakes in the country)