MMDA to conduct census for squatters’ relocation

The stage is set for a large scale plan to relocate informal settlers living beside waterways in Metro Manila with the conduct of a census starting this Friday.

Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chair Francis Tolentino told reporters on Wednesday that the agency would be in charge of the three-day census involving Manggahan Floodway residents.

Tolentino said that the census, which is in accordance with the Urban Development and Housing Act, is the first phase of a relocation plan for thousands of informal settler families.

Last year, the national government led by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), announced its plan to find new homes for some 20,000 families living alongside six major waterways in the metropolis, including the Manggahan Floodway.

“The plan is [to eventually] take them away from danger zones and into proper homes. During storms, their homes get flooded because [these] are just above the water,” Tolentino said.

He added that the relocation program is a joint project of the MMDA, DILG, Department of Public Works and Highways, National Housing Authority (NHA), National Anti-Poverty Commission and various people’s organizations onsite.

The census will determine the total number of informal settlers at the Manggahan Floodway, who among them are willing to be relocated as well as the total number of informal settlers in the most dangerous area in the waterway, Tolentino said.

At the same time, he assured the residents that no demolition was scheduled.  “We will not relocate them until there is somewhere to relocate them,” he added.

According to him, an MMDA property near the floodway will be used for the nearly 900 relocation housing units to be built by the NHA.