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Rationale
necessities which include food, shelter, clothing and transportation. Over time,
these communities developed into cities and urban areas brought about by
housing, food and basic services such as water and electricity, security and
health care. In many communities, all of these basic services are not met
poor sanitary condition (e.g. absence of toilets) and high crime rates (e.g.
As cities and urban areas are generally viewed capable of offering more
the rural areas move to the bigger cities to seek for better employment or another
source of living. For instance, a young college graduate from one of the
provinces in the Visayas and Mindanao will seek job opportunities in bigger cities
such as Manila and Cebu. As the population continues to grow brought about by
Obviously, the new settlers’ lack of land property within urban areas is the reason
of informal settling. Settlement became a major problem and even reached the
point that it seemed uncontrollable.
Like any cities and barangays in the Philippines, the city of Cebu also
faces the same problem of congestion and informal settlement. As the second
is not surprising. The Cebu City government in general and its comprising
barangays in particular have their respective stories to tell revolving around the
dated July 10, 2010, it was stated that for many years now, the cemetery has
been home to urban poor families who have built their homes on top of tombs.
Moreover, among these illegal structures, 91 have tombs underneath the house.
Sixty tombs still have cadavers, while the other 31 are empty (KAL/RRF, 2010).
Hence, it is a fact that these people live in an inappropriate site for settlement. As
the area is not made for people to live in, problems on health and sanitation
The study has its basis on the concept of human settlement in the
Philippine Constitution, which states that every Filipinos has a right to quality of
life. With this, having a decent land and domicile for the latter to uplift and
prosper himself is of great importance and is one of his basic needs. This need,
stressed out in the Ekistics theory which is proposed as the science of human
Doxiadis. In his theory, he explained that man, part of a living organism which is
the community, has his needs and these needs must be addressed. In
which have a bearing on man’s survival is the shell which refers to body covering
and a house or a domicile. This has become a very important property that the
latter should have to protect him from the danger the outside world may bring.
Similar to this, the occupants in Lorega-San Miguel Cemetery also has this
perception of a house or domicile where they and their families are secured.
would satisfy these people’s need is also a matter of considering the existing
factors within the locality of Cebu City. These factors that were considered on the
namely the Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor (DWUP), the Housing and
Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB), the Department of Social Welfare and
Development (DSWD), the City Planning and Development Council, the Local
likes of the Gawad Kalinga Community Development Foundation, the Action for
Nurturing Children and Environment (ANCE); the most importantly the existing
laws are ordinances that could affect the solution on accommodating the
occupants of the cemetery on Lorega-San Miguel. Figure one below shows the
above mention.
ACCOMMODATION OF
SETTLERS IN LOREGA- SAN
MIGUEL CEMETERY
FIGURE 1: A diagram on the factors affecting the accommodation of settlers in Lorega-San Miguel Municipal Cemetery
Significance of the Study
housing for the informal settlers of barangay Lorega-San Miguel Cemetery and
for security of the health and well-being of the people. Resolving informal settlers
entities:
the problem of informal settling will determine the capacity to reside permanently
be resolved through the joint effort of the city and the community.
With this, barangay officials may become aware and vigilant in the
approach of this certain problem and that, on the onset of informal settling, they
Through this, there is clear delineation of land use and that the public is
made aware that the Lorega-San Miguel municipal cemetery is no more and that
the grounds have been made to accommodate “live” people as residents who are
monitored by LGU units; thus, appeasing the public that no shady characters
THE PROBLEM
Giving these informal settlers better housing condition is a matter that the
City Government has to address. However, the lack of these people in terms of
land property in an urban area like Cebu City poses an explicit constraint in
carrying out this responsibility. This matter is considered alongside the influx of
proponents believed that turning these informal settlers into formal settlers is
addressed:
1. When did these occupants start to reside inside the cemetery grounds?
2. What are the reasons for migration of these residents from the rural to
3. How many settlers, in terms of families, have been identified to reside the
cemetery?
owned land?
limited to the government agencies, departments and sections in the likes of the
Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor (DWUP), Department of Social
Welfare and Development (DSWD), Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board
Definition of Terms
came into its current land use as a cemetery due to the reason of
Tenement: a term used on an apartment building for rent or rent to own that
marginalized sector
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Method
The study used the descriptive method in which clerical and mechanical
tools were applied in the data collection. Include in the tools were interview
guides, on-site observation checklist, Moreover, the gathered data and results
Environment
was the selected site of the study. It came into its use due to the need of non-
Catholic people to bury their deceased loved ones in another area apart from the
nearest Catholic burial site including Carreta Catholic Cemetery. These non-
Catholics were urged by this need because burying their dead loved ones in
Catholic cemeteries would be costly for them, and by tradition, it had been a
norm for us Filipinos to separate the Catholic and non-Catholic burials which was
an influenced from the Spanish colonizers. As much as it serves its use in the
people have been living the area since 1960’s. Even the area was an
inappropriate site for human settlement, as local news reports describe that most
houses are built on top or beside tombs; the occupants still dwelt on it because it
was the nearest place to set up their homes from their workplace and it was an
area they knew that can accommodate them within the city. Moreover, they also
found the place less hassling because they don’t have to pay rentals for it.
people dwelt within the cemetery grounds. Scabies, also known in the vernacular
for the occupants. With this, the people became aware of the threat that may
affect them by living inside a cemetery. Given options on avoiding this threat
these people requested for a legislation to happen on converting the site into a
residential area, and on July 09, 2010, a resolution on the closure of the
cemetery was passed and with it, the project on housing was pushed through. At
this point of time, the Cebu City government is on its phase of removing and
transferring the remains of those tombs which will be affected by the housing
development.
Respondents
study. In addition, they were usually the ones who were screened and got
passed as legitimate beneficiaries of the project and members of the UCESIRA,
Tools Procedure
As what had been discussed previously, the tools used were the clerical
and mechanical. Under the clerical tool, instruments that were included were the
option to survey questionnaires due to the fact that the intended respondents
were those identified as members of the UCESIRA and those who passed the
screening made by the Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor. As these
respondents were already identified, the researchers still had to make interviews
to identify more beneficiaries that had not been listed as a member of the
researchers to obtain data from these people. Prior to this, a letter of request had
been made and received by the people through their association. The interviews
were scheduled prior to the deadline on the data presentation and were done
meetings held at the UCESIRA office every Sundays and note what were the
existing elements within the site. This was an important tool on obtaining
pertinent data particularly from the site for it would have a bearing on the solution
of the problem particularly on the physical aspects. In it, list of existing structures,
utility line and services, vegetations and type, the site characteristics and
condition, the current tomb and dwelling pattern of the site and other physical
attributes of the site were listed and were marked as present or absent. This
instrument aside from the interviews made was scheduled prior to the
cameras and voice recorders. These were used alongside with the interviews
and on-site observations to document data. The camera was used extensively to
document the existing condition of the site, during interviews and at every
Sunday meetings at the UCESIRA office. The voice recorders were used during
Scoring Method
Since the study did not used any survey questionnaires, scoring of the
data obtained were not based quantitatively, rather it was more of the qualitative
questionnaires. Hence, the latter became a matter that the researchers had to
consider less since the data collection were intended to obtain more beneficiaries
used on checking the condition of the site and the characteristics of its elements.
CHAPTER II
behaviors. Particularly, in humans, this occurs due the latter’s need for food,
water, shelter and many others. With this, people tend to move from one place to
another in search for their basic needs to survive. It was in this manner that
nomadic life was an apparent settlement. But later, as these people learned new
things and started to develop new technologies which would help in their means
established. From this, towns and cities were later developed and
along which generated employment, and also caused the influx of people
towards the industrial cities. These would have been beneficial to industries
which requires workforce. However, the influx of people also caused problems
instigated in the likes of accommodation and housing of these new settlers, and
because of these settlers’ lack of land properties with the city, settlements known
as squatting happened.
site which is suitable for human living. This site should have also been
possessed by the settlers wherein they should have legal evidences of the site or
Philippines, but, it did not for many reasons. One is that laws and local statues
addressing human settlements were not that firm on imposing strict rules against
squatting. Another was that, zoning of lands according to its pre-empted use was
these people became unreceptive when ask to move out of their areas. In terms
of planning, this was so because of the mere truth that these people had already
established themselves on the areas they have lived. Moreover, the idea of
evicting these people from there homes would be like uprooting an aged tree
from its location, causing detrimental effects to the latter. Hence, evicting this
people from the land they do not own is less an effective solution in solving illegal
it.
In this scenario, an act, known as the Republic Act 7279 or the Urban
Development and Housing Act of 1992 was promulgated. Also known as the Lina
Law, it had already been made to protect these settlers from being evicted from
1986 by then Senator Jose ‘Joey’ Lina, which states that informal settlers living
on lands they do not own for 30 years and over from the time the law’s
promulgation are protected from any means of eviction. Whereby, in the event
that these settlers have to be moved out from the properties they are squatting
due to a valid cause, the government will mediate and shall help these people for
resettlement. However, people who were not covered with this law are not
protected and are subject to eviction. As what has been published in SunStar
News, a local newspaper; “Cebu City Hall will demolish illegal structures along
Cebu City’s riverbanks and it will not provide relocation sites to affected
discouraging illegal settlers and most importantly, securing the safety of these
people. However, the truth that these informal settlers which were regarded as
the Urban Poor has probably no more fundamental problem than their inability to
access decent, secure lands for even the most minimum housing needs. Access
and lift itself out of poverty. Evicting households might be an effective way of
clearing land for other uses, but in almost any eviction, the poor are the greatest
losers: they loose the houses that they have invested in, they often loose their
jobs, their belongings, their building materials and their social support systems.
Plus, evicting informal settlements reduces the city’s stock of affordable housing
and instead of solving the problem simply moves it elsewhere, at very high
social, economic and political costs (UN Human Settlements Program and UN
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, 2008). Hence, the
government still has to find ways in dealing with this people in a manner that it is
not violent and is beneficial on part of the land owners and the informal settlers.
informal settlements, so are other Local statutes and National Laws which has
appropriate for the people who will be involved. One of these is the Socialized
and Economic Housing Law, also known as Batas Pambansa bilang 220 which is
and socialized housing projects in urban and rural areas from those provided
With this law, guidelines and standards on how to settle informal settlers
through low cost housing are provided, and as stated, this law also correlates
with other laws established which the following are: PD no. 957 or the subdivision
and condominium buyers’ protective decree which shall “regulating the sale of
1096 also known as the National Building Code of the Philippines that shall
developing safe structures and buildings against fire, BP 344- The Accessibility
Law of which is a law that sets guidelines on incorporating physical features that
would provide and encourage access to persons with disabilities, “to put them
urban areas though housing and resettlements is made possible. However, with
the constraint on a limited area that a city has, efficient housing and resettlement
As traced from history, a tenement has been in its existence since the
ancient times, particularly the Romans, who housed in their slaves and the poor
in this particular dwelling. Even in the later times, during the Industrial
crowded into tall tenement dwellings. This situation happened because Western
cities and towns grew more rapidly than did the percentage of people residing in
daily danger, they nevertheless take pride in not being squatters. The seven-
story high-rise is now a wretched symbol for what has gone wrong in the country
since. When Marcos defeated Macapagal in 1965, the housing project was
administration. But those who had been homeless and awarded units there,
officials that the building was condemned and no longer livable. But hardly
assistance for relocation. The National Housing Authority so far refuses to say if
it has a plan for the residents, 17 years after the NHA itself declared it unsafe
(Severino, 2007).
Another example of the same building type
fortunate people.
PHOTO 3: A One Point Perspective View of the Like any other means of
Jaime Cardinal Sin Village Tenement Housing
Building Source:
http:// urbanroamer.files.wordpress.com accommodating the marginalized sector of
the Philippine society, the Cebu City government also envisioned tenement
housing as a solution since the city has lesser lands to develop housing projects
horizontally. With this, vertical development is a possible choice wherein the poor
such as the Gawad Kalinga Community Development Foundation and the Action
for Nurturing Children and Environment, Cebu City is now pushing through the
development is that the people would less likely to be used in living on a vertical
Moreover, the fact that these people would rather live on shanty or exchange
their awarded units for moneys is a problem that the Government had also to
foresee.