Philippine's housing commitment as a preventive resettlement strategy for informal settler families
| Published date | 01 August 2023 |
| Author | Melissa Quetulio‐Navarra |
| Date | 01 August 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13164 |
International Migration. 2023;61:345–348.
|
345
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imig
Received: 22 May 20 23
|
Accepted: 23 May 2023
DOI: 10 .1111/imig .13164
COMMENTARY
Philippine's housing commitment as a preventive
resettlement strategy for informal settler families
Melissa Quetulio- Navarra
Departm ent of Sociology and Anthro pology, School of Social Scie nces, Ateneo de Manila Univer sity, Quezon City, Philippin es
Correspondence
Melissa Quetu lio- Navarra, Dep artment of Sociolog y and Anthropology, Schoo l of Social Sciences, Ateneo de Man ila University,
Quezon City, Philippines.
Email: mnavarra@ateneo.edu
The accelerated in tensity and frequency of natu ral disasters due to climate chan ge and the increasing populatio n,
which i ncludes the vulnerable poor se ctor residin g in high - risk areas have made countries consider preve ntive
resettlement over post disaster resettlement as a disaster r isk reduction str ategy. Preventive resettlement of
population is de sired when the risks they a re facing cannot be avoided o r mitigated by other measure s.
In the Phil ippines, typhoo ns have increased 18 times since the 1970s (Porio, 2014) a nd with devastati on fre-
quently greatly felt in the densely populated urban centres like Metro Manila. Metro Manila is considered one of
the mos t hazard- prone cities in t he Southeast Asia region, and where 40 percent of its popu lation are info rmal
settlers (estimated at 50 0,000 p lus1), the majority are consta ntly suffe ring from flooding during r ainy season .
Following the issuance of a Supreme Court decision in Decembe r 2008 instructing concerned government agen-
cies to undert ake clearing operations i n Metro Manila waterways tha t lead to Manila Bay and the typh oon Ondoy
that inun dated poor com munities in 2009 incurrin g damage to properties v alued at billi ons of Philippi ne pesos,
the government in 2011 resorted to preventive resettlement strategy. This preventive resettlement programme
was labell ed as ‘Oplan Likas’ and ‘Opl an Handa’ with a Php 50 billi on funding from the administr ation of former
President Benigno A quino III (2010 to 2016) upon strong reco mmendation of the ci vil society network. Oplan
Likas connotes p reventive resettle ment for those informal settl er families livi ng in danger ar eas and those living
on top and along water ways (i.e. rivers, cana ls, creeks) numbering to 104, 219. Subseque ntly, the programme was
relabelled a s ‘One Safe Future’ pro mising a better life f or all the affecte d informal settler families (ISFs) includ ing
tho se livi ng alo ngsid e or on st ilts i n water ways af ter re sett leme nt to the ir new co mmuni ties . The pr event ive res et-
tlement of thousands of ISFs in Metro Manila was done in two approaches- the tradi tional, top- down model, taking
the bulk of the bud get and the people- led mo del, where 19% of the budget was all ocated.
Stark contras ting outcomes are seen in the two mod els under the ‘One Safe Future’ reset tlement programme.
Families who volunteer ed to re settle und er the traditional, top- down ap proach ende d up mov ing to ‘off- sites’,
meaning the distance from their original loc ation to the gover nment- built sites range s from 30 to 50 kilometres.
While the objective of this resettleme nt programme w as an improvement of the well- being of the ISFs, it was a
paradox in the lives of the resettled. Thus, it was common to hear from them the loaded sarcasm ‘from danger zone
to death zone’. Mounting evidence reveals that apa rt from unemployment, expensive tr ansportation fares due to
© 2023 Internati onal Organizati on for Migration.
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