Thesis Statement: Awarding private lands to informal settlers is not a sustainable solution to the rising problem of urban squatting as it impedes on the rights of private land owners.

Overview

An archipelago which consists of 7,107 islands, the Philippines is home to over 97 million Filipinos according the recent statistics provided by the Commission on Population[footnoteRef:1]. With over 30 million hectares, one would think that the country has enough space for its people but this is a skewed view as there is a rising problem of proper land distribution, unbalanced density of populations, and natural disasters. [1: Projected Population as of May 6, 2013, PH: Commission on Population, May 6, 2013]

Currently, there is a swelling in the urban population of the Philippines as many of the rural dwellers are blinded by the Manila dream a dream where they think they would be able to hit it big in the big city that is Manila only to end up as part of the informal settlers riddling the various vacant lots of the metro. The causes of which have no end but one must be able to see the gravitas of the root cause which is land reform and proper allocation of land resources.First, consider the problems of the rural people, most of them remain landless as they fall victim to natural disasters that erode lands making them uninhabitable. In addition, despite the various land reforms purported by our government, majority of these fertile and habitable lands are redistributed to wealthy private landowners who merely lease the lands to these rural dwellers making them, technically, landless and thus pushing them to pursue the great Manila Dream contributing to the already dense population in the city. Inadvertently, the lack of access to agricultural land along with natural resources to the majority of these rural dwellers, which comprise the majority of our population, is the key cause of poverty in our country and has turned itself into a major speed-bump to natural growth and development. The above is actually a conundrum to what the Philippines actually has to offer. Our country is rich with natural resources, a land diverse with flora and fauna, and yet most of our resources are controlled by only handful of big name companies who monopolize profits to further expand into and exploit our natural resources leaving nothing for the small communities. In the end, as the population in the provinces dwindle; the population in the urban areas continues to rise. Informal settlers have become a major problem in our society and most solutions being presented by both the local and national government do not have even a semblance of sustainability, at least for the long run. These solutions include awarding lands to these urban poor and dole out to help them get back on their feet, an enabling solution to a cyclical problem.