Homeless and hopeless

Everyone dreams of residing in a decent home. Owning, or even leasing, a house is a fair aspiration for all families. Not having one is depressing. Demoralizing. Distressing. And the state has the obligation to create an environment where all the citizens, with a reasonable level of labor, shall have access to a safe place to live in.

However, more than 4.5 million Filipinos are considered informal settlers. We used to call them squatters. Slum dwellers. Improving the semantics did not change their dismal conditions at all. We just hid the problem under the rug. The electoral cycle accorded them the rare power to be tolerated because of the votes they cast. Who would want to gain their ire? The ballots will reject whoever is brave enough to remove them from their houses. They would fight and risk imprisonment or even any conceivable physical harm defending their right to remain in the slums that they consider home.

Influx of Filipinos to the capital in pursuit of better lives. At least 43 percent of our urban population are desperately surviving the sub-human existence in these areas. More than two-thirds of them are in the National Capital Region (NCR). The phenomenon was primarily caused by the uneven regional economic development in our country. The Manila-centric growth enticed the dreamers in the rural provinces to venture to the more developed cities in the NCR beginning in the late 1970s.

Frustrations and unfulfilled dreams did not discourage the internal diaspora from the provinces. After all, until the 1980s, the cities outside the NCR did not offer many opportunities for career advancement or jobs – even menial and underpaid. Besides, in that period, the raging communist insurgency sowed fear in the rural areas, which further pushed many of our countrymen to escape and try their luck where others already were failing.

The bandwagon did not end in a movie-like get rich journey where the last part will be a “lived happily ever after” funfair. Instead, they joined the thousands of others who would end up doing the most difficult tasks that the society could offer to them. Crumbs, joblessness, hopelessness. At best, a househelp, manual laborer oblivious of his labor rights or, even if he knows them, would ignore any of it because being underpaid is much better than not having any job. Drivers, restaurant assistants, cleaners, pedicab drivers, sampaguita sellers, beggars, anything, or any role that would give them the means to survive the day – including crime.

Yes, in these areas, crime thrives. This is coupled with pollution, sanitation problems, high mortality rates, poor access to potable water and illiteracy. Here, the proverbial vicious cycle of poverty breeding desperation is at work. And this cycle has no other direction but the further worsening of this social predicament.

The entire nation is affected. The dire conditions in these marginalized communities would impact the entire nation, especially where they are located. Crimes, for example, are not confined in their vicinity only. And once the residents from these areas commit offenses against their victims, hiding in the shanties and maze of unchartered planks of roads would be automatically easy. Law enforcers, in fact, encounter difficulties in tracking and pursing fleeing lawbreakers who merge and disappear. Drug problems also plague these poor neighborhoods. Tourism also suffers and takes a beating because of these.

We must resolve the problem on informal settlers. Of course, the real solution to end this dilemma is for us to build and achieve a robust inclusive economy in all our regions so that there will be no need for the rural folks to migrate. Logically, they would rather enjoy progress in their hometowns than explore other cities as long as there will be opportunities in their own town.

At the same time, we must now have a workable relocation grand plan that will encourage those who are already in the metropolis to leave. Relocation sites must offer job opportunities and access to education, medical services and other basic needs for the communities. Housing projects must be viable both for the target beneficiaries and developers. I heard good words about the new chief of the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD), Secretary Jose Ramon Aliling, perhaps related to Joe Aliling, a much-respected engineer whose firm supervised the construction of countless buildings in the country. I used to visit him in his Xavierville office. I believe that the new housing boss will make a difference.

Our independence will be celebrated in a couple of days. We must value the arduous process of fighting for our right to govern ourselves and define our collective future – hopefully bright. We swim or sink as a nation. Our newly elected political leaders must courageously start providing homes for the Filipinos who are living in our poorest slums and depressed communities. Only in this way shall we more meaningfully celebrate our real independence.

*      *      *

Email: [email protected]