Noting the coastal and marine resources in the country and the failure to manage the divergent development efforts in the coastal zone as the reason for its stark degradation, the article expounds the theory of integrated coastal management (ICM) as a long-term approach to reviving the economic welfare of coastal communities in the Philippines. Basically defined as a process of planning, implementing and monitoring the sustainable use of coastal resources by all stakeholders in the coastal zone, ICM comes as a large set of goals and objectives, the activities of which are arranged in plans. The basic process of ICM planning is then presented, first as a cycle of eight general stages, then through the associated activities and roles of various actors in the eight phases of the process.