Resettle informal settlers, LGUs told

MANILA, Philippines – President Aquino has called on local government officials to immediately act to solve the problem of informal settlers in the country, saying their number is increasing based on current government figures.

The President said the government would need P10 billion a year until 2016 to resettle the informal settlers and provide them with better shelter at the soonest time possible.

In a speech at the Urban Poor Solidarity Week and the 25th anniversary celebration of the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor in Malacañang on Friday and at the Philippine Air Force Invitational Shoot Fest and firing range blessing at Villamor Airbase in Pasay City yesterday, the President said the problem with informal settlers “has grown instead of lessened.”

He lamented that his own mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, put up the Commission for the Urban Poor during her term, and one generation had passed and the problem with informal settlers remained the same.

The President said they were hoping that at least half of the 560,000 informal settlers – about two and a half million people – in Metro Manila alone would be given housing and livelihood opportunities during his term.

“Of course, if the economy improves, then we will be able to assist more,” he said, but lamented that local government units (LGUs) seemed to be not doing their part and that the people must be getting tired waiting for the problem to be addressed.

He said the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1994 mandated the LGUs to conduct a survey of informal settlers.

“Do you know how many conducted the survey? In NCR (National Capital Region), two,” Aquino said.

“We cannot blame the (LGUs) because (they) worry that they are responsible for whatever they have listed,” he said.

Aquino said the national government should not be blamed if the problem was not fully resolved by 2016 because LGUs also have a responsibility.

Under the law, LGUs are required to resettle informal settlers especially those living on esteros, waterways and other hazardous areas.

He reminded the LGUs that there was such a thing as “donor fatigue” and that they must seize the current opportunities to attend to the problem of informal settlers.

But the President said the government would strive to provide vertical housing and encourage others to go back to the provinces where they could cultivate land or start small businesses. –Aurea Calica (The Philippine Star)