Our event today reminds me of the words of American writer and positive thinker, Orison Swett Marden, “A good system shortens the road to the goal.”
As we all know, strategic planning in any endeavor is invaluable, as it provides the most efficient direction towards results. In addressing the housing need in our country, strategic planning is vital to reach our goal of furnishing all citizens, especially the urban poor, with decent homes and basic services within sustainable communities.
This “Conference on the National Informal Settlements Upgrading Strategies in the Philippines and Abroad” gives us a glimpse of our housing roadmap. The Millennium Development Goals call for a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020. For the Philippines, meeting this target is a major challenge. Housing requirements remain high. Affordability of and access to housing programs by the poor will continue to be major issues.
The Philippines is one of the most rapidly urbanizing countries in Asia. Over sixty percent (53 million) of the population is residing in urban areas and this is projected to increase by about 84 percent (117 million) by 2050. Informal settlers, which comprise more than a third of the urban population, exacerbate the problem.
Batay sa aming talaan noong 2010, halos isang milyon at apat na raang libong (1.4 million) pamilya ang maituturing na nangangailangan ng pabahay. Kabilang dito ang homeless, ang mga nakatira sa mga dilapidated na bahay, at yaong mga nakikitira sa ibang bahay o doubled-up households.
Pinakalaganap ang sitwasyon sa Metro Manila. Ayon sa datos na nakalap ng National Housing Authority sa mga local government noong isang taon, nasa mahigit limang daan at walumpung libong (580,000) pamilya ang matatawag na informal settlers at halos isang daan at limang libo (105,000) dito ang nakatira sa mga disaster-prone areas kagaya ng estero at iba pang daluyan ng tubig.
Until recently, sustainability has not been given serious consideration in urban development. The need to design climate-resilient housing and sustainable communities becomes more and more urgent as more lives and properties are lost or endangered due to the impacts of climate change.
In 2009, typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng ravaged the country. They caused extensive flooding that severely affected over 9.3 million people out of an estimated population of 43.2 million living in the affected regions. The two typhoons left about 220,000 homes completely destroyed or partially damaged by floodwaters in Metro Manila and across Luzon. Mostly affected was the informal sector, which consisted of makeshift dwellings located in flood-prone areas. And who could forget the effects of the more recent and probably more destructive Sendong? The images of the victims and the areas ravaged by this typhoon are still etched in our minds.
We hope that through the National Informal Settlements Upgrading Strategy (NISUS) we can move towards sustainable urban development. Our policies and strategies must go beyond physical dimensions and should address urban poverty as a whole. These policies must include the varied aspects of poverty, such as employment or livelihood, shelter, food, health, education, and access to other basic services.
Among the challenges that we face are perceptions regarding informal settlers that make decision-makers and stakeholders resistant to upgrading policies, and that informal settlers are too poor to pay for infrastructure and improvement of services.
We are here today to learn from the experiences of other countries and gain new insights. Accordingly, we hope that perceptions that hinder us would change, and see that informal settlements upgrading is a viable and sustainable solution. Clearly, a comprehensive strategy for slum upgrading and creating sustainable communities is vital. When we launched this last year, I reiterated that this is about shifting paradigms to collectively generate doable solutions to the challenges that beset the urban areas.
Bahagi ng paradigm shift ay ang pagbibigay-lakas o empowerment ng ating mga kababayang higit na nangangailangan ng seguridad sa lupa at tahanan. Kailangan nating bigyang dignidad silang mga kapos sa yaman. At dapat na sa pagbibigay nito, kabahagi sila mula pagplano hanggang pagsasagawa ng mga programa at proyektong laan para sa kanila, at hanggang pagtalaga ng mga responsableng taga-monitor ng progreso at pagtatapos ng programa at proyekto.
Our successful applications of informal settlement upgrading strategies in some of our cities are testaments that there is hope in these endeavors. The Partnership of Philippine Support Service Agencies Inc. (PHILSSA) did several projects, such as the Urban Partnerships for Sustainable Upliftment, Renewal, Governance, and Empowerment (UPSURGE) and the Upscaling Urban Poor Community Renewal Scheme (UUPCRS).
The UUPCRS Project demonstrated the effectiveness of a community-based and demand-driven approach in informal settlement upgrading projects. When communities are fully involved in the identification, design, and implementation of projects, they prove to be effective partners in informal settlement upgrading work. Also, the UUPCRS Project showed that LGU-NGO collaboration is a viable model of multi-sectoral partnership. This scheme was able to assist the cities of La Union, Naga, Quezon City, Mandaue, and Iligan in their informal settlement upgrading projects.
On the other hand, UPSURGE built upon the success of the UUPCRS Project, and continued the community-driven design with the addition of another feature. This is the institutionalization of the LGU-NGO partnership, and the incorporation of shelter concerns into the city development plan and government structure. The total beneficiaries for UPSURGE were around 4,000 households in the cities of Iligan, Mandaue, La Union, Valenzuela, Legazpi, Talisay, and Quezon City.
The task of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) is to provide overall direction for the promotion of decent and affordable housing opportunities and sustainable human settlements for our lowest-income families. Our primary goal is to ensure that upgraded or resettled communities will be provided with improved social services and access to housing and infrastructure determined by their land tenure status.
In line with the partnership that was forged between HUDCC and the Cities Alliance on May 10, 2011, the NISUS will finance a number of preparatory activities leading to the development and adoption of the informal settlement upgrading strategy. Today’s event is part of these preparatory activities, as we take stock of current initiatives in local and international settings.
We have invited speakers from Brazil and Vietnam and we hope to learn from their experiences, especially on the factors that affected their initiatives and financing schemes, and more importantly, on how they were able to make their respective strategies work. We also hope to gain insights and be inspired by the experiences of local organizations and governments, namely the Homeless People’s Federation of the Philippines Inc. (HPFPI) and the LGUs of Valenzuela and Naga, on informal settlements upgrading in their respective localities.
It is heartening that we have with us our brothers and sisters from people’s organizations and civil society. We will directly know more about their needs as we all move forward to craft our national informal settlement upgrading strategy.
Your individual presence and representation are crucial. They are indicative of your support for NISUS and other complementary strategies and programs. The result of today’s workshop will dictate the next steps for the creation of the NISUS.
Sa mga kababayan ko, nagpapasalamat ako at nasisiyahan sa inyong pagdalo. Pagkakataon nating lahat ito upang pagsamahin ang puso’t isip tungo sa isang makabuluhang estratehiya sa pabahay at informal settlements upgrading. Walang kasing-halaga ang ambag ng mga people’s organizations at mga civil service organizations. Ang tulong ninyo dito ay magbibigay ng pangmatagalang suporta at serbisyo sa ating mga mamamayan.
Sana marami tayong matutuhan sa ating mga speakers mula sa iba’t ibang panig ng mundo. At lalo nating pag-isahin ang ating karunungan at kakayahang magpanday ng abot-kayang pabahay at magandang buhay.
Together let us push for the implementation of this strategy for sustainable shelter and urban development, and ultimately for the improvement of lives. Once again, welcome to our Conference. Let us make it fruitful and blessed.
Thank you.