Development issues regarding Bunot Lake: the Lesser Lake among the seven lakes of San Pablo City,Philippines

Bunot Lake exhibits the worst conditions among the seven crater lakes of San Pablo City in the Philippines. It is the most polluted lake, being oversaturated with fish pens/cages. It also hosts the largest concentration of illegal settlements. These attributes strongly suggest that Bunot Lake merits much greater attention in the agenda of its two administrative agencies, the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) and the City Government. The reality, however, is that Bunot Lake is lacking key development initiatives and programmes and seems to occupy a low priority to the LLDA and the City Government. This reality is particularly perplexing as the lake is located very near the urban centre, is closest to the premier lake (Sampaloc Lake), and is the site of the first commercial production of tilapia in floating cages in the city. Against this background, the present study identifies and analyses the immediate development issues for Bunot Lake. It contends that Bunot Lake should be given preference by the LLDA and the City Government, specifically by: (i) modifying their model‐template approach; and (ii) taking steps to tackle a basic need of Bunot Lake, namely the formulation of a zoning‐development plan. The present study also was designed to directly address the lacuna in Philippine lake studies, namely the paucity of research under the social science perspective (which is currently dominated by the natural science perspective) and on small lakes (which is currently concentrated on the largest lakes in the country).