MANILA, Philippines?The government needs more than P32 billion in the next 10 years to relocate qualified families from among the more than 500,000 households of informal settlers in Metro Manila, according to an interagency committee.

The number of squatter families represents 21 percent of the estimated 2.6 million households in Metro Manila.

One of every five households of informal settlers lives in danger areas such as riverbanks, floodways, roads, aqueducts and under bridges, according to the Metro Manila Inter-Agency Committee on Informal Settlers (MMIAC).

In a report, the MMIAC said the government would need P3.225 billion yearly to come up with the 22,689 socialized housing units needed every year over a 10-year period.

The MMIAC?s report was one of the documents the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) submitted to the Supreme Court on Oct. 13 in compliance with the tribunal?s December 2008 decision ordering government agencies to clean up Manila Bay.

The Supreme Court, in its landmark decision, specifically ordered the MMDA and the Department of Public Works and Highways to dismantle structures and other encroachments on all waterways leading to the bay and to report to the tribunal the progress of their compliance.

?Specifically, the government needs to produce approximately 14,922 [housing units] per year over the current production of 7,767 units,? the MMIAC said.

It said this socialized housing backlog of almost 15,000 units was earlier projected and submitted to the National Housing Authority (NHA) for relocation starting in 2007.

Based on 2007 survey

Based on the survey of Metro Manila?s local government units and the NHA in September 2007, there are an estimated 544,609 total households living in different slum areas, the interagency committee said.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered the immediate relocation of families near waterways following the massive flooding caused by Tropical Storm ?Ondoy? on Sept. 26.

The MMIAC said half of the informal settlers, or more than 270,000 families, had qualified for the government?s 10-year socialized housing program worth more than P32 billion.

?[The] first available housing option is the development of off-site/off-city resettlement areas ? An example of this would be the house and lot provision of the NHA costing P200,000 per family in resettlement sites like Calauan, Laguna,? the committee said.

?In this case, the government shoulders the initial costs and recovers these through affordable monthly amortization of P300 to P500,? it said.

Financially capable

A census and prequalification survey estimate that 40 percent of the squatter families in Metro Manila are financially capable of availing themselves of commercial housing through government loan facilities such as the Pag-IBIG fund.

Ten percent of the squatter households were deemed disqualified from receiving any housing assistance from the government.

Formed in July 2007 by Ms Arroyo, the MMIAC is composed of the MMDA, NHA, local government units, the Urban Poor Affairs Office, Housing and Urban Development and Coordinating Council, Presidential Commission on Urban Poor, Office of the Undersecretary for Religious Affairs, Commission on Human rights, Caritas Manila representing the Catholic hierarchy, and other government agencies.

The MMDA head and the NHA general manager were designated as the chair and vice chair, respectively, of the MMIAC.

Dredge lake, clear Pasig

In Marikina City, residents severely hit by Ondoy are seeking 10 million signatures to compel the national government to ?once and for all? dredge and clear the Pasig River and Laguna Lake of all types of obstruction to allow floodwaters to flow freely into the Manila Bay.

?The clearing and the dredging may not be the final solution but it will certainly prevent a repeat of a devastation of such scale,? the group, called the Samahan ng Mga Biktima ni Ondoy, said in a statement.

The group called on nongovernment organizations, church and environmental groups and local governments to join the multimedia campaign. It said it hoped to spread the word via text messaging and through the social networking site Facebook.

The group asked Facebook users to join the ?Biktima ni Ondoy? cause at: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/370393/89863940?m=cc366e79

It also demanded that the dredging and clearing operations be completed before the onset of the typhoon season next year ?if they (residents) are to have any peace of mind.?

Floodwaters in Marikina reached almost 17 meters above sea level. ?The water could not flow to the Laguna de Bay because its own level is also already very high at almost 16 meters, about five stories high,? the group said.

?In spite of this height, the water of the lake in turn could not freely flow out to Manila Bay because of the obstructions in the lake and the silted, shallow, and garbage obstructed Pasig River,? it said.

Revive spillway project

The group said the immediate solution lay in increasing further the emptying of floodwaters to the sea, which could be accomplished by either reviving the archived Parañaque Spillway project or widening the Pasig River or both.

Architect Felino ?Jun? Palafox Sunday called on the government to commence immediately the construction of the spillway.

?We cannot do without the Parañaque spillway. Many people are already being inconvenienced. We should build it now, not a day too late,? Palafox told the Inquirer.

He said Parañaque would be a logical choice to build the spillway because it was the shortest strip of land between Laguna Lake and Manila Bay at 8 kilometers.

Palafox said the spillway could be built on street level like the Roman aqueducts, or better, underground.

Malaysia?s Smart Tunnel

The architect cited a current project in Malaysia, the Smart Tunnel, an underground tunnel with an underground road on the first level and a storm water tunnel on the second level. It was started in 2003. The Smart Tunnel measures 9.7 kilometers.

?The technology to build these things is already there,? Palafox said.

He also cited the construction of the Panama Canal at 77 km, the 192-km Suez Canal and the Channel Tunnel at 37.9 km that connects England to France.

?Yet, we cannot even manage the Pasig River at 27 kilometers, or even the Marikina River,? Palafox said.

He said the construction of the Parañaque spillway should be done together with the Manggahan spillway. ?It?s like constructing a toilet without a flush,? he said.

The construction of the spillway should be done in conjunction with the dredging of rivers and esteros within Metro Manila, Palafox said.

He said the construction of the spillway was covered by two presidential decrees in 1972 and 1974. ?So how come the spillway wasn?t built?? he asked. With a report from DJ Yap