Joseph "Ose" Marquez Aquino's Blog: 2021

Nothing about housing the homeless, without the homeless! by Joseph "Ose" Marquez Aquino President, Samahan ng Responsableng Anak ng Nayon, Inc. Bgy. 178, Camarin, North Caloocan City, Philippines Nothing about housing the homeless, without the homeless! Is it possible for the Habitat for Humanity to develop a webinar information and feedbacking series and dialogues with Informal Settler Families (ISFs), wherein each particular session topic would involve the data-basing of local housing situations, problems and proposed solution options to certain sets of area-based communities and throughout the nation's urban areas? For example the Tala Estate property in North Caloocan City (Presidential Proclamation 843 of late President Marcos as amended by PP 825 by former Pres. Fidel Ramos): Originally, the Tala Estate Property was allocated for leprosy patients that eventually thereafter allowed for families of leprosy patients and later, part of which was allocated for housing areas through NHA, civic center area (20 hectares) to the City and for social welfare programs of the DSWD (10 hectares), but that which are now informally-occupied by Informal Settler Families (ISFs). How is it possible for housing stakeholders to support the Habitat to lead-facilitate the conduct of series of inter-agency dialogues to discuss convergence stakeholdership between and among the urban poor sectoral organizations and the concerned government agencies on certain thematic areas like Presidential Proclamations of Government Lands or certain private lands owned by corporations (private or public) that are already occupied by poor families? Possibly, the stakeholdership with Habitat may consider discussions of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) with the NAPC National Urban Poor Sectoral Representatives (per RA 8425), the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP), the SHFC (financing), HLURB (balanced housing and registration of ISF per magna carta for HOA), NHA (administration of govt lands, DHSUD and DENR (re proclamation of govt lands per RA 7279 and EO 131 on disposition of government lands), and all other agencies concerned (national or international), related in part or in whole to certain issues and areas affecting the ISFs. Stakeholders may also find effective ways and assistance on how to involve the leaders of the actual communities of poor ISFs in the series of dialogue; and support them to access the discussion through the establishment of digital fund support for involvement in the process of the leaders of community ISF associations. I believe that for such a long time, the government and private sector housing solutions in urban areas in the country, especially in Metro Manila, have never been effectively providing correct solutions in housing the homeless poor people, which by sweats constructed the cities. The housing industry is elitist and exclusive to economic well-to-do. The Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC) is underfunded on its Community Mortgage Program (CMP). The National Housing Authority (NHA) has failed to resolve the housing problems worthy of its mandate. The housing industry and government (national or LGUs) in power even allowed violence to the poor families, which exacerbated the failed hopes of the future of the nation, due that such eviction violence without decent relocation are affecting the body and minds of the children of poor ISFs. Almost all housing solutions failed, more particularly the NHA housing relocation projects that are indecent and usually located in off-cities, which are without water, electricity, no jobs, no livelihoods, no public transportation, no education facilities, and seem-like isolation facilities. The housing stakeholders should also consider the need to locally establish at-least people-centered, if not people-led, housing stakeholders process of community planning, budgeting, implementation and monitoring ala Bottom-Up-Budgeting (BUB). Housing programs should be localized, through each Sangguniang Barangay, especially those with a high number of Informal Settler Families (ISFs). Any barangay housing projects must be democratically discussed with the duly-selected leaders of community ISF organizations concerned (from among themselves); which should be one among the approving signatories from planning to implementation of all local housing projects. The Barangay Development Councils' PO-NGO genuine participation or appropriate representation of the concerned small Community-Based Organizations (sCBOs) must be upheld once and for all (since the concurrent process of BDCs are all like stamp pads; para sa palakpakan kaya pinasali sa mga lokal na asembliya ng pamahalaan; wala naman power to propose and oppose and recommend ang PO-NGO representation sa business-as-usual autocratic LGU Local Development Councils) Stakeholders may also consider in these aforementioned views the context of funding and financing the localized housing solutions through the Mandanas ruling related to the anticipated increase of IRA funding share of LGUs. The present failed housing solutions will definitely not ensure success but failures in the future, if not arrested today beyond convenience of the stakeholders. Failures of housing programs will persist, unless the stakeholders will be able to foresee that the on-going failed elitist exclusive interventions in the supposed objective of housing the homeless millions of people will result in more failures in the next decades. That failure will worsen urban poverty and the degradation of the environment in cities, as well as affirm the country’s mismanagement of urbanization. Stakeholders should start discussing the localization of housing the ISFs now and start defining the involvement of the ISFs themselves through localized interventions like ala Bottom-Up Budgeting (BUB) in Barangay structures. The localization of housing interventions, appropriately disruptive to the present failures, should understand that indecent housing and forced evictions of informal settler families is inhumane and a product of human-made disasters. The housing failure is a failure of not going beyond the seeming rhetoric of government policies that are unimplemented, like the "disposition of certain government lands that are idle for more than 10 years, in favor of the occupant beneficiaries under RA 7279" and the likes of the Commission on Human Rights' Advisory on the Right to adequate Housing and Human Treatment of Informal Settlers (https://chr.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/HRA-CHR-IV-No.-A2011-003-On-the-Right-to-Adequate-Housing-and-Humane-Treatment-of-Informal-Settlers.pdf) It is not business-as-usual, but rather the disruption of convenient profit-driven elitist interventions that will ensure the arrest of failures in housing the homeless people that are the backbone of any urbanization and every city-hood. Localization of housing policies, project funds and implementation can be the alternative solution. The Barangays and local communities of ISFs should be the center of localization of disruptive solutions to the failed housing programs in the Philippines. In whatever national or local solutions, it must be strongly urged that the housing stakeholders should reflect the view that: "nothing about housing the homeless, without the homeless!" Congrats to all the officers and staff of Habitat for Humanity and to all the stakeholders of BAHAYnihan in beginning the process of dialogues in housing the poor! (Postcript: The comments were posted at the Facebook account of the author on June 16, 2021)