Marikina’s poor get land titles

MANILA, Philippines — More than 1,500 informal settler families have been awarded land titles under Marikina City’s land distribution program, the local government said on Sunday, providing other Metro Manila cities a model for a perennial problem.

While many local governments have looked to low-cost housing and other infrastructure projects to address large populations of informal settlers, Marikina’s approach places a special focus on land ownership.

Nena Tiglao, Marikina City land management and community relations division chief, said her department recently intensified land distribution efforts, which began in 2016 under Marikina Mayor Marcelino Teodoro.

To implement the program, the city government bought private property and made use of community mortgages, a government financing scheme that provided housing loans to poor families. It currently has 248 settlement areas in the city.

Just like gated communities

These communities were envisioned as areas similar to gated subdivisions, thus providing “dignity” to landowning families.

“We don’t have a housing program here because financially, it will constrain [and] burden the government funds, so we’ve looked to land tenureship,” Teodoro said.

According to Tiglao, program beneficiaries shell out between P200 and P800 per month, at about 3 percent interest, for up to 15 years.