The Philippine Secure Tenure (ST) Campaign

• Developing the Content of the ST Campaign
• The Philippine Secure Tenure Framework
• Initial results of the Secure Campaign

While the GUG campaign engages local government units and key partners at the local, national, regional, and global levels in a debate and a facilitates consensus on the norms of good urban governance, the campaign for secure tenure on the other hand, seeks to mainstream the urban poor agenda in governance.

Urban poor gather at the launching of the Secure Tenure campaign

Developing the Content of the ST Campaign

In 1998, the Homeless People’s Federation of the Philippines (HPFP) started the efforts to launch the Secure Tenure Campaign. At the time, it was stalled by political uncertainties that eventually led to a change in political leadership. Meanwhile, the present administration allowed such efforts to flourish by holding consultations with people’s organizations where the latter presented priority issues concerning the growing housing and settlement problem.

POs participated in the preparations for the National Housing and Urban Development Summit held in October 2001.

It was during the CDS national workshop when the Urban Poor Colloquium (UPC) and HPFP presented their community-based initiatives in poverty reduction. While these POs participated in these housing summit workshops, they expanded their operation at the local level by broadening their saving mobilization schemes and continuing their negotiations and coordination with city government units on issues regarding security of tenure.

On the first PUF brainstorming session in December 2001, both the HPFP and the UPC committed themselves to lead the Secure Tenure campaign in the Philippines.

Mr. Ric Domingo, President of POST-Net, presenting the National Action Agenda for Good Urban Governance and Secure Tenure during the Secure Tenure campaign launch held in October 2002 at Quezon Memorial Circle.

A year later, through the facilitation of the PUF the POs convened to review and formulate the framework and components of the ST campaign in the Philippines, which became the basis of the campaign activities. It culminated in various advocacy initiatives and baseline studies.

To date, the UPC and the HPFP have facilitated consultations among NGOs and POs across Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. These consultations served to surface major issues and concerns that affect the urban poor with regards to housing and shelter development. The regional launches where LGUs, key government agencies and the private sector agree to carry out actions to address these various concerns culminated the consultation efforts. These declarations of commitment formed part of the National Action Plan for Secure Tenure.

The Philippine Good Secure Tenure Framework

The right to security of tenure, or the right to feel safe in one’s own home, the right to control one’s own housing environment and the right to a process of eviction or displacement mitigation, forms the most indispensable core element of social inclusion. Secure tenure emanates from a justifiable right to access and use of land ownership and property.

In the Philippines, security of tenure, along with employment and livelihood, are the highest priorities of a significant segment of the city population—the poor informal settlers or commonly called "squatters."

For the urban poor settlers, security of tenure means freedom from the threat of demolition and forced eviction from their residential locations that are usually located in the heart of the city. On a broader sense, security of tenure enables the urban poor settlers to maintain their residence in the city, with walking or one-ride distance to employment, education, health centers and markets. Occupying a strategic and stable place in the city is far more important to them than the state of their houses and surroundings.

The global campaign for security of tenure comes at a time when LGUs are open to collaboration with civil society and are willing to provide some form of security of tenure. The struggle among the urban poor for security of tenure has started since the 1950s when they began to migrate to Metro Manila in large numbers. In the 80s, other cities outside Metro Manila began to deal with the issue of security of tenure. Cebu, General Santos, Naga, San Carlos and Dumaguete, for instance, have opened their doors to negotiation with urban POs on land issues. The passage of the UDHA of 1992 was a milestone, enabling people to have rights on the land they were occupying. ↑

Initial results of the Secure Tenure Campaign

The UN Habitat campaign on security of tenure comes at an appropriate time because it brings together long-standing efforts in security of tenure in the Philippines.

UN Habitat highlighted three distinct outputs of the campaign:

• The campaigns encouraged the POs to participate, establish linkages, and engage with other stakeholders, particularly with LGUs.
• Direction and focus became more strategic as they vowed to pursue common actions towards achieving goals.
• Formation of a PO network that is tasked to consolidate, advocate and monitor advances in the ST campaign. ↑

In terms of the framework and components of the ST campaign, the UPC and its PO partners prioritized four (4) components that respond directly to the priority issues of the urban poor sector:^*

• Preventing and addressing forced evictions. The UPC/POs drafted a proposed Executive Order (EO) creating an independent commission that would address forced and illegal evictions. The President signed the proposed EO, designating the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP) as the clearing house for relocation and eviction activities and for the proclamation of settlement sites.
• Preventing and rectifying distant relocation. Based on the relocation experiences of POs/NGOs and existing local and international documents on relocation guidelines, a comparative analysis of the minimum relocation standards was drafted and validated with partner NGOs/POs. The document serves as a discussion paper in formulating a minimum set of relocation standards in the Philippine context.
• Promoting forms and realization of security of tenure instruments. A consolidated document on the experiences, gaps, and recommendations for securing tenure in five identified proclaimed sites was prepared which can be used eventually as a policy advocacy paper for proclamation procedures in the Philippines. The five identified UPC sites are: a) Sambag, Cebu b) PNR site, Legaspi c) Maypajo, Quezon City d) Baseco, Manila, e) Makar Townsite, General Santos City.
• Assessment of UDHA after 10 years. A benchmarking tool has been devised and presently being pre-tested at the regional level. This aims to arrive at an agreed monitoring procedures and mechanisms among those who lead the ST and GUG campaign towards the implementation of UDHA in all cities in the Philippines. ↑

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