Like
the government of every urbanizing city and town in the
Philippines, the Naga City LGU was faced with the vexing
problem of how to deal with squatter communities in a way
that is fair to them and to the landowners. To address the
problem in a way that will discourage further squatting,
the city launched the Naga Kaantabay sa Kauswagan or Partners
in Development Program in 1989.
The
program is driven by two overriding principles. First, the
government will not help the urban poor unless they actively
participate in solving their own problems. Second, squatters
must organize themselves into urban poor federations, settle
their own boundary disputes among neighbors, negotiate with
landowners, and make down-payments for their home lots with
the city playing role of supporting agent, as do three key
local government agencies, and land owners in which the
interests and abilities of each party are taken into account.
After
taking a complete inventory of squatters (25 percent of
the city’s population) and deciding only to help those
who are on the list, the city developed a program to address
the sector’s two main problems: (1) the absence of
security of land tenure and (2) the lack of basic infrastructure
in the communities. The city encouraged the community organizing
and capability building efforts in urban poor communities
of 3 NGOs. It provided free legal services and pre-relocation
surveys, helped with subdivision plans, and improved services
in relocation sites. The former squatters are now repaying
loans for their housing with a current repayment rate of
82%. These payments are held by the city’s new urban
poor trust fund, which is used for loans to other squatters.
In
four years, the program has resettled 925 families on 22
hectares of city-owned land and 789 home lots in downtown
Naga. These beneficiaries represent one-fourth of the city’s
inventoried squatters. By institutionalizing a functional
mechanism for permanently settling land disputes between
landowners and land occupants; elevating living conditions
of the urban poor through on-site area up-grading projects
for blighted urban poor communities; establishing intra-city
relocation sites for victims in extreme cases involving
eviction and demolition, and providing livelihood opportunities,
the Naga Kaantabay sa Kauswagan was able to empower the
urban poor and cushion the negative impacts of urbanization.
