[World Urban Forum 3] Poverty serious RP problem, De Castro tells world meet

from INQ7

POVERTY has remained a serious problem in the Philippines despite government measures to improve the lives of the urban poor, Vice President Noli de Castro told a United Nations-sponsored forum in Canada.

Speaking at the third session of the World Urban Forum (WUF3) organized by UN Habitat in Vancouver, De Castro said the urban poor in the Philippines had endured “mixed” conditions in the last 16 years.

While poverty incidence went down from 44.2 percent in 1985 to 30.4 percent in 2003, the number of poor families rose as a result of population growth, migration to urban centers, and limited resources, De Castro said.

De Castro spoke at the session “Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): Slum Upgrading and Affordable Housing,” which opened with a clip from the 1990 documentary film “On Borrowed Land.”

The documentary examined the urban crisis in Manila arising from the post-EDSA flood of rural migrants and the emergence of sprawling squatter communities along Manila Bay.

“Perhaps the most dramatic symbol is our successful transformation of the erstwhile icon of urban poverty in the Philippines -- Smokey Mountain --into a commercial and residential center,” he said.

However, there are many more urban poverty problems that the government still needs to address, De Castro admitted.

On the issue of “voluntary evictions” undertaken by the government to pave the way for the rehabilitation of major railways, De Castro stressed that demolitions and evictions were avoided or deferred “as long as the continued stay of informal settlers in their present sites do not pose a danger to others or to themselves.”

Whenever feasible, the government would regularize the tenure of informal settlers through presidential proclamations disposing of public land as socialized housing sites, he said.

De Castro also explained that “voluntary eviction” was part of the “beneficiary-led and localized” resettlement program for informal settlers affected by the clearing operations as in the case of the North-South Rail Linkage project.

The resettlement program has resulted in the peaceful relocation of all the families of Phase 1 of the NorthRail alignment, De Castro said.

He also said that the government remained “committed to wage a relentless battle against poverty in our cities and urban areas.”

De Castro also met with UN Habitat Executive Director Anna Tibaijuka during which he reiterated the country’s support of the goals of the habitat agenda “both at the national and international levels.”

He assured Tibaijuka that the government would continue to champion the principles of the twin campaigns on secure tenure and good urban governance supported by UN Habitat.

Some 15,000 participants from different countries attended the WUF3, whose theme was “Our Future: Sustainable Cities -- Turning Ideas into Action.”