BASECO Bagong Buhay ProjectPort Area, Manila

BASECO is an urban-poor community of more than 47,000 families occupying 52 hectares of landreclaimed from the Manila Bay. The land used to be owned by a now-closed shipbuilding firm of thesame name and has proclaimed by the national government for transfer to its residents.

Even before the fire of January 2004, people at BASECO lived in squalid conditions. Most of theramshackle dwellings were built on stilts on swampy or slimy ground; toilet facilities were often a hole inthe floor, and high tides flooded the houses with the polluted waters of Manila Bay.

Because their houses were crowded against oneanother, the community had twice been struck by firebefore 2004. But the fire of 11 January 2004 was themost devastating. During that six-hour fire, manypanicked residents fled the flames by wading into thebay. More than 20,000 families lost theirhomes—some for the third time—and more than 2,500houses were burned down. The homeless families weregiven temporary shelter in empty warehouses,basketball courts, and chapels. To the fire victims, itseemed that their miserable living conditions hadbecome more miserable.

The local government of Manila decided to turn the calamity into an opportunity. It joined hands withmany organizations from the private sector to respond to the needs of the community in a more organizedand systematic way. It commissioned two non-government organizations to build a thousand homes eachfor the fire victims. One of them is Habitat for Humanity Philippines (HFHP).

The Project

The project has two main components: houseconstruction and community development. The houseconstruction component is being carried out by HFHP’sHabitat Building and Resource Center (HBRC), whilethe community development component is beinghandled by the Center for Community Transformation(CCT).

House Construction

Because of the soft ground at BASECO, the Habitat Building and Resource Center adopted a newconstruction technology: light-weight steel frames bolted on to one-piece concrete slabs that serve as thehouses’ foundations. The steel frames themselves are cut by computer-guided equipment. Walls consistof fire-proof cement-fibre boards. The roof is made of galvanized aluminum, which keeps the occupantscool even under the intense, tropical sun. Because floor area was set as sixteen square meters, the roof ispitched to allow the construction of a sleeping loft that increases living space to twenty-six square meters.

The Habitat houses at BASECO do not use inexpensive technology. However, with good propermanagement, Habitat is able to build them with direct costs of PhP40,000 per unit (or 589 @ PhP 67.99: 1).

Aside from the houses, Habitat also paves the ground between every two rows of Habitat houses. Asthese pavements are not covered by the house costs to be amortized by the homepartners, Habitat needs toengage in a separate fund-raising effort for them. Each strip of pavement costs PhP 12,000 (or 177 @PhP 67.99: 1).

In the initial phase, Habitat will build 1,000 houses before the end of 2005. However, there are 10,000more families in BASECO who need decent, durable, and affordable shelter, and it is foreseen thatHabitat will again be tapped to assist these families address this basic need.

Community Development

As this is a Save and Build project, one of the first objectives of community development is to organizethe homepartners into savings groups. This is a major undertaking, as the homepartners, having beeninformal settlers, had previously not paid for shelter (unless they rented space from other informal settlersin the area). Organizing work will be handled by the CCT, a micro-finance institute (MFI), and throughits efforts, the homepartners will acquire the values of saving, budgeting and planning for the future.

From mobilizing savings for mortgage payments, these savings groups can move into accumulatingcapital for micro enterprises, which can be matched with business loans from CCT. The CCT also hasprograms for life insurance, mortuary services, education loans, health loans, etc. Given the CCT’s trackrecord as an MFI in other areas of the country, Habitat is optimistic that the homepartners will soonbecome productive members of society.

HFHP is also seeking partners for other community-development components, such as education andhealth, safety and the environment. It has also partnered with a government agency, the NationalCommission for Culture and the Arts, which has planted mangrove trees, organized some of the localyouth into a cultural troupe, and sponsored a mural-painting contest (on the walls of the end units of theHabitat houses). However, more remains to be done in terms of inculcating among the homepartners thevalues of taking care of the community and in demanding greater accountability from elected localleaders.

Philippine National Office Unit 12-A, 12/F PET Plans Tower, #444 EDSA, Guadalupe Viejo, Makati City 1211 Tel. No. (632) 897-3069 Telefax (632) 897-3248 E-mail: hfhphil@yahoo.com www.habitat.org.ph