QUEZON City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte has called for a new census of informal settlers to determine the extent of the city’s squatting problem.
Accurate data would help the city government plan its housing programs and projects, noted Belmonte, who is running for the mayoralty in next year’s elections.
“That’s the problem, the number one problem in Quezon City is data. There’s no data that is reliable because every office has its own data,” she said.
“That’s why one of the things that I really want to do is just to collate, collect accurate data to work with so you can actually do good planning,” the vice mayor added.
Based on the latest city hall estimate, about 190,000 informal settler families or approximately 950,000 individuals live in Quezon City.
Belmonte said there is proposed housing code designed to provide the informal settlers and lower income families with decent and affordable houses.
“They are the most vulnerable, not only to calamities but also to demolition. And when they are demolished, where will they go?” she stressed.
Since settlers’ shanties are also made of light materials, they are also susceptible to fires, Belmonte said.
“Can you imagine the disruption of the lives of their children and of themselves in terms of their livelihood just because they live in a very vulnerable environment with houses made of very light materials? And it’s not their fault,” the vice mayor said.