the Urban Housing Issues of Metro Manila

The phenomenon of urban slums in Metro Manila was not widely documented until the 1960’s, when the Philippines experienced rapid urbanization and an astounding influx of squatter populations. Earlier in the 50’s, the squatter population grew in check with the pace of urban development. By the 60’s, the squatter population started to swell along with the accelerated urbanization. Rural migrants streamed in from the largely agricultural countryside, lured by the promise of jobs and wealth, found themselves landless and eventually settled near swamplands and creeks, on idle government properties (like the Tondo foreshore area, now a large squatter colony, which was formerly slated for development into an international port and shipping facility, or Brgy. Commonwealth, which was intended to house an aggregate of government houses and offices-the development of both properties were subsequently neglected due to lack of funds) and disputed private lands. A United Nations survey pegged the slum population to be at 370,000 in 1964 and only four years later, it swelled to 1.1 million (Keyes 1983). By the 1980s, the National Housing Authority reported that one out of four residents of Metro Manila was a squatter-an astounding 150 percent increase within only a decade (U.S. Library of Congress).