MMDA dumps illegal settlers’ relocation on Binay’s office

THE Metro Manila Development Authority said Sunday it has relinquished the task of relocating over half a million squatter families to Vice President Jejomar Binay, chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, because it lacks the resources to do it.

“The vice president has accepted the task to chair [the Metro Manila Inter-Agency Committee on Informal Settlers] instead of I heading it,” said MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino, who refused to head the committee.

“His agency has the capability to meet the requirements of the housing needs [of the squatters],” Tolentino told the Manila Standard.

He said an amendment to former President Gloria Arroyo’s Executive Order 803 in May 2009 was awaiting the signature of President Benigno Aquino III, which would assign Binay to implement a plan to relocate and house 544,609 squatter families in Metro Manila.

“The MMDA does not have the financial resources to come up with a comprehensive shelter program,” Tolentino said.

All the agency could do was coordinate with the Housing Council, he said.

Mrs. Arroyo created the Committee on Informal Settlers with the same order, which called an end to professional squatting and ordered the development of new housing strategies, including the provision of basic community facilities, livelihood and education programs.

Mrs. Arroyo tasked the MMDA to head the anti-squatting drive, and the National Housing Authority to act as vice chairman of the committee, which would operate with a trust fund set up by MMDA.

Emerson Carlos, one of the MMDA’s legal consultants, said they had initiated the amendment to Executive Order 803.

“The amended [order] has not yet been signed by the President. I have checked the information with our office,” he told the Manila Standard.

Former MMDA chairman Bayani Fernando wanted a P13.75-billion budget for a 10-year relocation program for the 544,609 informal settlers staying in Metro Manila’s so-called danger zones.

Nineteen percent or 75,000 of those were living along the metro’s waterways, he said in a report.

Rio Araja, Manila Standard Today