(APR. 8) — Former UP School of Urban and Regional Planning (SURP) dean Primitivo C. Cal, PhD passed away on Apr. 8.  He was 76.

Cal, an urban and regional planning expert was SURP dean from 2004 to 2007, envisioned the School as a Center of Excellence in urban and regional planning.

In the SURP webpage, it was said Cal wanted an “internationally renowned urban and regional planning educational institution with excellent academic programs, faculty members, facilities and support services.”

Cal wanted SURP to assist in improving human settlements and the environment through “coordinated and comprehensive development studies and plans; strengthen and assist government agencies and private organizations in studying and solving problems of planning an development, and facilitate the implementation of development proposals at the national, regional and local levels.”

It was under Cal that reforms were initiated in SURP’s various divisions and units such as the implementation of a pro-active administration of theses and dissertations, the conversion of the School’s journal into a refereed journal and the development of more customized training programs.

It was during Cal’s term that SURP harnessed the capabilities of information technology as “spatial planning is a major part of its curriculum, the School equipped itself with modern software and hardware to support it.”

Cal was Undersecretary of the then Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) in the 1990s under President Fidel V. Ramos.  He was Director of the UP National Center for Transportation Studies (NCTS), the former President of the Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers (PICE) and the Philippine Institute of Environmental Planners (PIEP), and the first President of the Transportation Science Society of the Philippines and the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies (EASTS).

Cal was former President and Executive Director of the UP Planning and Development Research Foundation, Inc. (PLANADES).

Cal, who was an Asean engineer, was a registered civil engineer, transportation engineer, environmental planner and lawyer.