Editing Metro Manila (section)

===Poverty, housing and urban slums===
{{See also|Slums in Manila}}
[[File:WTMP_Noel_Gonong_DSC_0077.JPG|thumb|right|The [[Smokey Mountain|Smokey Mountain Development and Reclamation Project]] for the former [[Smokey Mountain]] dumpsite and slum community is a prime example of in-city relocation housing for informal settler families in [[Tondo, Manila|Tondo]], [[Manila|City of Manila]].]]
{{stack|float=right|{{PH poverty incidence}}{{key needed|date=June 2024|post-text=thousands? percentages? what?}}}}

From the 1980s up to the present, informal settlers ([[squatters]]) have accounted for roughly one-third of the Metro Manila population.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Rebong |first=Nick |date=January 14, 1996 |title=Squatters to fill half of metropolis |page=9 |work=[[Manila Standard]] |publisher=Kamahalan Publishing Corp. |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=B_4tAAAAIBAJ&sjid=YwsEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2742%2C1996725 |access-date=January 26, 2022 |quote=In 1980, Metro Manila's squatter population was estimated as 857,000. By 1987, this figure exploded to about 2.5 million or roughly one third of the population of Metro Manila. |archive-date=January 25, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125165832/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=B_4tAAAAIBAJ&sjid=YwsEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2742,1996725 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Shahani |first=Lila Ramos |author-link=Leticia Ramos-Shahani |date=December 10, 2011 |title=Paradox of growth |newspaper=[[Philippine Daily Inquirer|Inquirer Opinion]] |publisher=INQUIRER.net |url=https://opinion.inquirer.net/18893/paradox-of-growth |access-date=January 26, 2022 |archive-date=January 25, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125165842/https://opinion.inquirer.net/18893/paradox-of-growth |url-status=live }}</ref> A majority of informal settlers belong to the middle-class.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Albert |first1=Jose Ramon G. |last2=Santos |first2=Angelo Gabrielle F. |last3=Vizmanos |first3=Jana Flor V. |date=2019 |title=Unmasking the middle-class: profile and determinants |url=https://pidswebs.pids.gov.ph/CDN/PUBLICATIONS/pidsdps1820.pdf |publisher=[[Philippine Statistics Authority]] |page=6 |access-date=January 26, 2022 |archive-date=January 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220130172138/https://pidswebs.pids.gov.ph/CDN/PUBLICATIONS/pidsdps1820.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2014, there are an estimated four million [[slum]] dwellers living in Metro Manila. [[Homelessness]] is also a major problem in Metro Manila.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Paul Roy |date=September 18, 2014 |title=In the slums of Manila, inequality is so bad that the worst off have no chance to protest |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2014/09/slums-manila-inequality-so-bad-worst-have-no-chance-protest |url-status=live |magazine=The [[New Statesman]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160616180249/http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2014/09/slums-manila-inequality-so-bad-worst-have-no-chance-protest |archive-date=June 16, 2016 |access-date=November 4, 2016}}</ref> However, these are being addressed by creating in-city relocation housing, and by relocating informal settler families in low-density housing built in the nearby provinces of [[Batangas]], [[Bulacan]], [[Cavite]], [[Laguna (province)|Laguna]] and [[Rizal (province)|Rizal]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Archived copy |url=https://www.nha.gov.ph/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190613210109/http://nha.gov.ph/ |archive-date=June 13, 2019 |access-date=November 21, 2019}}</ref>

During the American occupation, housing policies in Manila dealt the problem of sanitation and concentration of settlers around business areas. Among those implemented were business codes and sanitation laws in slum areas in the 1930s. During this period and until the 1950s, new communities were opened for relocation. Among these were Projects 1–8 in [[Quezon City]] and the Vitas tenement houses in Tondo. The government implemented the Public Housing Policy in 1947 that established the People's Homesite and Housing Corporation (PHHC). A few years later, it put up the Slum Clearance Committee which, with the help of the PHHC, relocated thousands of families from Tondo and Quezon City to Sapang Palay in [[San Jose del Monte]], Bulacan in the 1960s.<ref>{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hetOAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA36 |title=Report |publisher=Office of Economic Coordination |year=1963 |location=Philippines |pages=36 |language=en}}</ref>

During the time of President [[Ferdinand Marcos]], the [[World Bank]] and the [[Asian Development Bank]] supported the programs for the "development of relocation" and "on-site development". [[Carmona, Cavite|Carmona]] and [[Dasmariñas]] in [[Cavite]] and [[San Pedro, Laguna|San Pedro]] in [[Laguna (province)|Laguna]] opened as relocation sites. Along with the establishment of the [[National Housing Authority (Philippines)]], Presidential Decree 772 made squatting a crime, making the Philippines one of only two countries (the other is [[South Africa]]) where squatting is a crime. The government formulated the National Shelter Program which became the over-all framework for dealing with housing needs of all income classes.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}}

[[Imelda Marcos]] held both the position as Governor of Metro Manila and as Minister of Human Settlements and Ecology (MHSE) until the downfall of the dictatorship in 1986. The MHSE, through loans from the World Bank, initiated the Bagong Lipunan Improvement of Sites and Services (BLISS) housing projects not only in Metro Manila but also in other provinces.<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 9, 1979 |title=Executive Order No. 517, s. 1979 |url=https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1979/01/09/executive-order-no-517-s-1979/ |access-date=July 21, 2021 |website=www.officialgazette.gov.ph |archive-date=July 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210721095352/https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1979/01/09/executive-order-no-517-s-1979/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite web |date=November 28, 1983 |title=Proclamation No. 2321, s. 1983 |url=https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1983/11/28/proclamation-no-2321-s-1983/ |access-date=July 21, 2021 |website=www.officialgazette.gov.ph |archive-date=July 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210721095353/https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1983/11/28/proclamation-no-2321-s-1983/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

From 1960 to 1992, the government transferred some 328,000 families to resettlement sites {{convert|25|to|40|km|abbr=on}} from Metro Manila. According to the Asian Coalition on Housing Rights, during President Corazon C. Aquino's time, the government would bring some 100,000 persons to relocation sites yearly. During the said period, Sapang Palay and Carmona had a 60% abandonment rate. Congress enacted Republic Act No. 7279 or the Urban Development and Housing Act (UDHA) in 1992. The law gave a new name for the [[Squatting|squatters]]: informal settlers.<ref>{{cite PH act|chamber=RA|number=7279|title=An Act to provide for a comprehensive and continuing urban development and housing program, establish the mechanism for its implementation, and for other purposes|url=https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1992/03/24/republic-act-no-7279/|date=March 24, 1992|accessdate=May 26, 2023|archive-date=November 9, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171109053552/http://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1992/03/24/republic-act-no-7279/|url-status=live}}</ref> Essentially, UDHA gives protection for big private ownership of land in the urban areas, ensuring that these are protected from illegal occupants. The law also widened the scope of private sector participation in the National Shelter Program (NSP).{{citation needed|date=April 2019}}

In the middle of the presidency of [[Gloria Macapagal Arroyo]], infrastructure projects of the government led to the demolition of hundreds of thousands of families (from along railways, [[Circumferential Road 4|C-4 Road]], [[Circumferential Road 5|C-5 Road]], and from [[Fort Bonifacio]]). During the same period, new relocation sites in Bulacan, Valenzuela and Caloocan opened.