.jpg)
(2010-08-23)_2.jpg)
Urban areas in the Philippines such asMetro Manila,Metro Cebu, andMetro Davao have largeinformal settlements. ThePhilippine Statistics Authority defines a squatter, or alternatively "informal dwellers", as "One who settles on the land of another without title or right or without the owner's consent whether in urban or rural areas".[1] Squatting is criminalized by the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992 (RA 7279), also known as the Lina Law. There have been various attempts to regularize squatter settlements, such as the Zonal Improvement Program and theCommunity Mortgage Program. In 2018, the Philippine Statistics Authority estimated that out of the country's population of about 106 million, 4.5 million were homeless.
The Philippine Statistics Authority has defined a squatter as "One who settles on the land of another without title or right or without the owner's consent whether in urban or rural areas".[1] Local media and journalists refer to squatters euphemistically as "informal settlers."[2][3]
Out of the country's population of about 106 million, an estimated 4.5 million were homeless according to the Philippine Statistics Authority; of these 3 million were in the capitalManila.[4][5]Causes of homelessness include poverty and destruction of homes due to natural calamities[6] andclimate change.[7] Urban poor activistMimi Doringo has called on the government to redirect corruption-prone pork barrel funds and counterinsurgency spending to address the Philippines' housing backlog.[8]
The growth of homelessness and squatting in urban areas are linked to internal migration from poorer regions.Rural poverty, a major factor in internal migration, has been rooted on various factors, including farmer dispossession andland grabbing, violent suppression of peasant movements, decline of the agricultural sector, and the deterioration of living conditions in rural areas.[9]
Residents of informal settlements tend to experience poor living conditions and may lack access to basic services such as water, sanitation, and health care.[10] Informal settlements may be threatened by or subjected to demolitions, while housing rights activists may be subjected tored-tagging, violent attacks, or harassment.[11][12] According to cultural studies professor Laurence Castillo, demolitions are justified through a development framework, using such terms as "economic development", "urbanization", and "infrastructural projects".[11]
The Philippine government allotted ₱65.43 billion for housing projects from 2015 to 2022. According to the PhilippineCommission on Audit, the National Housing Authority failed to achieve its targets repeatedly, citing instances of project delays and unoccupied housing units. The housing backlog stood at 6.5 million in 2022 and is projected to rise to 10 million under the Bongbong Marcos presidency.UN-Habitat estimates that the housing backlog could reach 22 million by 2040.[13]
Squatters build makeshift houses called "barong-barong" on unused land.[14] The occupations increased after World War II as people moved from rural to urban areas.[15] InCebu City, colonies of squatters emerged after the city was bombed to ruin. By 1974, it was reported that Cebu City had 34 informal settlements and by 1985, it was estimated that there were 232,520 squatters, which had comprised 40% of the city's population.[16] InDavao City, there was a scramble for land previously owned by Japanese people and these occupations were legalized in the 1950s by the government. By 1968, there were an estimated 75,000 squatters living in informal settlements and inner-cityslums.[17] At thePort of Manila, land was reclaimed in the 1950s inTondo and quickly occupied by squatters. By 1968, there were over 20,000 households in the informal settlement.[18] Elsewhere in Manila, parks and military land were occupied.[18] TheZone One Tondo Organization (ZOTO) was set up in 1970 to represent squatter interests in Tondo and campaign for land rights.[19] It inspired other groups and the Ugnayan ng Maralitang Tagalunsod (UMT) was founded in 1976 to campaign for squatters on a national scale.[19] The first mass eviction on record inManila was in 1951 and the largest took place in late 1963 and early 1964 when 90,000 people were displaced.[20]: 43 By 1978, there were estimated to be two million squatters in Manila, occupying 415 different locations.[20]: 77
PresidentFerdinand Marcos announcedmartial law in December 1972 and by 1975 he had introduced a decree criminalizing squatting in an attempt to stop the expansion of informal settlements.[19][21] The dictatorship often forcibly relocated squatters to sites 30 or 40 km outside cities. First LadyImelda Marcos wanted to beautify Manila and therefore evicted thousands of squatters when the city hosted the 1974Miss Universe Pageant and the 1976 meeting of theIMF andWorld Bank.[22] She commented in 1982 that "professional squatters [were] plain land-grabbers taking advantage of the compassionate society".[20]: 46 The government attempted to resettle the squatters elsewhere, only for the squatters to return to their homes which were near where they worked, so the Zonal Improvement Program (ZIP) was started in the late 1970s. Slums were thenupgraded in situ: The occupations were regularized and supplied with sanitation and electricity.[19][23] There were squatters at theU.S. Naval Base Subic Bay and theClark Air Base in the 1980s.[24] In this time, the government began to forcibly resettle squatters again, moving them to places such asBagong Silang inCaloocan andPayatas inQuezon City. Resistance to evictions fed into the opposition to the Marcos dictatorship and resulted in the 1986People Power Revolution.[19]
TheCommunity Mortgage Program was set up in 1992, aiming to help low-income families transition from squatting toaffordable housing. By 2001, around 106,000 families had found secure housing in over 800 separate communities.[25]: 54 In 1993,slums in Metro Manila were estimated to contain 2.39 million people, or 30.5 per cent of the area's total population and 706,185 people had been assisted by the ZIP.[23] Impoverished squatters lived on landfill sites such asSmokey Mountain andPayatas dumpsite, working as scavengers.[26][27]
The urban poor organization Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay, or Federation of Mutual Aid for the Poor) was formed on November 7, 1998, with Carmen "Nanay Mameng" Deunida elected as its first chair.[28][29]
On January 12, 2000, informal settlers living alongCircumferential Road 4 (C-4 Road) inMalabon City were forcibly removed from the area by local policemen, who were conducting a clearing operation to make way for the Camanava Mega-Flood Control project, and squatters who refused to cooperate were temporarily sent to the Malabon police station via dump trucks. Up to 93 squatters and policemen sustained injuries from the operation.[30]
In 2011, community network organization Demolition Watch and Kadamay filed with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Right to Adequate Housing an appeal to investigatehuman rights violations on the urban poor, such as violent demolitions and forced relocation to areas with inadequate utilities.[31]
Kadamay carried out thePandi housing project occupation in March 2017, which is considered a part of the globalOccupy movement with its opposition tosocial andeconomic inequality.[32][33] The occupation of over 5,000 housing units built by theNational Housing Authority (NHA) inBulacan was at first condemned by PresidentRodrigo Duterte and then regularized.[34][35] The group then attempted to squat NHA property inRodriguez, Rizal, the following year and in 2019 it picketed the NHA offices in Quezon City.[36][37]
In June 2020, the Sitio San Roque Alliance, Samahan Ng Magkakapitbahayang North Triangle Association (SAMANA), and Kadamay joined a protest against the demolition of homes in Sitio San Roque, Barangay Bagong Pag-asa, Quezon City.[11]
The number of informal settlers in the Philippines is believed by government officials to have increased during theCOVID-19 pandemic.[38]
Amid theflood control projects scandal in the Philippines in 2025, Kadamay and other progressive groups protested budget cuts to social services, such as the ₱50-billion cut to thePantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), warning that the funding may be funneled to government corruption.[39] In November 2025, Kadamay and other members of the urban poor community protested in front of the NHA building, saying that President Bongbong Marcos, NHA, and the Human Settlements and Urban Development were "guilty of systemic corruption resulting in homelessness of millions of Filipinos".[13]
The Philippines is a party to theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights and theInternational Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, which recognize the right to adequate standard of living and adequate housing.[8]
The Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992 (RA 7279), also known as the Lina Law after its proponentJoey Lina, criminalized squatting yet discouraged evictions except in certain cases, such as when the occupation was carried out by "professional squatters and squatting syndicates".[40][41] The Marcos decree which had previously outlawed squatting was annulled by the Anti-Squatting Law Repeal Act of 1997 (RA 8368).[21]
The Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor, created on December 8, 1986, through Executive Order No. 82, is tasked to formulate policy and implement programs for the urban poor.[42]
The Community Mortgage Program, set up following thePeople Power Revolution (EDSA I) of 1988,[25]: 56–7 aims to help low-income families who aresquatting find secure tenure by establishing community associations to buy land, set up infrastructure, and build houses.[25]
ThePhilippine Commission on Human Rights recognizes adequate housing as a basic human right and provides guidance for the humane treatment of informal settlers.[43]
In 2021, the PhilippineHouse of Representatives declared a housing emergency in the country through House Resolution 1677. The resolution called on theDepartment of Human Settlements and Urban Development and other government agencies to address thehousing gap by providing housing to the homeless population and to families living in informal settlements.[44] The department estimated the government's housing backlog at 6.5 million units in 2022.[45]
Philippines articles | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| History |
| ||||||
| Geography | |||||||
| Politics |
| ||||||
| Economy | |||||||
| Society |
| ||||||
