When we leave these cemeteries, however, they do not remain empty. They are occupied the rest of the year by an ever-growing population of informal settlers marginalized from the world of the (barely) breathing. It is a grave situation indeed, but one which reflects the larger problem of providing shelter for everyone, living or dead, in the city.
The impending "constitutional crisis" that has preoccupied us for the last week is also a matter of life or death: That of our institutions and ultimately the whole system of public governance. Some say, in any case, that our government has been dead for years (or at least filled with brain-dead people). In the meanwhile, most realize that after this current crisis, another one will be thrown our way thanks to scheming, mudslinging, pork-barrel-spending, gun-toting, Expedition-riding, mistress-keeping, questionable politicians. Trust our so-called "servants of the people" to serve us another dish of disaster while we’re still choking on the last one.
All this also serves to distract us from other disasters. The outbreak of cholera in Tondo was almost overlooked because of the crisis of our courts. Viruses and disease will reign supreme over interpretations of law any day, yet we do not bat an eye when children die and our water turns foul. The incident is reported to be an isolated one and has been quickly contained. The containment though has been through stopgap measures of purifying tablets and rations of clean water. The incident may also not be as isolated as we think, since monitoring of health is not possible in Metro Manila’s fractured sprawl of squatter colonies, which contain four million people.
These and other related issues were recently discussed in two meetings I attended this week. One was a preconference lunch with the moderators for the upcoming workshop and conference, "Housing and Urbanism: Designing for Sustainability" (open to the public on November 4 and 5 at the social hall of the DBP Building, Makati). In the meeting, which sought to lay down guidelines for the workshop next week, were Dean Miguel Carpio of the FEU College of Architecture, Dean Abe Firmeza of the Central Colleges of the Philippines, Dr. Ronnie Manahan of PROS – a respected environmental planner, professors Grace Ramos and Dan Silvestre of UP (representing Dean Hedy Luis), professor Dan Lichauco of UST and well-known planner Jun Palafox.
Jun Palafox was reeling from media harassment stemming from the Supreme Court case but was concerned nevertheless that the conference would bring our other problems to light. Jun had just come back from a Harvard course on urban development where he presented a proposal for Manila’s future development, one that tackled the problems of transport and population growth (according to stats recited by Jun, Metro Manila is growing by 60 people an hour!).
Dan Silvestre and Grace Ramos of UP teach community architecture at the graduate level while Deans Carpio and Firmeza run similar programs in their respective schools. Dr. Manahan has been an advocate of regional planning and all are concerned about inner-city development, the dangers of sprawl, the impact of pollution, and the deteriorating physical and social infrastructure of Philippine cities. Professor Dan Lichauco, who teaches at UST, was concerned about the mix of people who would attend the conference but said that it would be a good workshop exactly because of the fact that the whole spectrum of concerned stakeholders in housing would be represented: NGOs, academics, architects, planners and developers.
Howie Severino of GMA attended this meeting. Howie is one of the few in media who balance our usual TV fare of vacuous programming with more substantial reporting on environmental and social issues. He was interested in featuring the growth of the city and its impact on the region’s environment. (He told me that another issue concerning the city involved shelter for animals; specifically that part of the reclamation area forming a habitat for migratory birds. He said this was threatened by insensitive real-estate development.)
The other meeting I attended was with two officers of USAID who were in Manila to look at aspects of energy and housing. In that meeting were former dean of the College of Architecture of UST, Louis Ferrer, Bill Keyes of Freedom to Build (one of the speakers for next week’s conference) and representatives of the Yulo Foundation for Sustainable Development (host of next week’s conference).
We briefed the visiting officers on the issues of electricity and housing, specifically housing for the urban poor. Meralco had just also briefed them on its (JICA funded) project to give informal settlers access to electricity. The project formally ended in 1999; the power distributor seemed to have difficulty providing Manila’s ever-increasing squatter population with power.
Basic services are sorely lacking in even the most established homes on squatter colonies. True enough, almost all have power (as evidenced by the TV aerials sticking out of almost every shanty) but the methods of connection and spaghetti of wires (pataas and pababa) are safety hazards that often are the cause of fires and electrocution. Most settlements lack sewers, drains and safe water too. The metropolis is turning into one un-sewered, flood-prone, backwater.
What can we do about it? The provision of shelter is a basic requirement of urban life. The programs of government fall short of quantity and quality, notwithstanding claims of the multitude of agencies involved in housing. Financing is better now but still difficult to access. Bill Keyes points out that some NGOs have had success in housing delivery using the programs created by government but more could be done.
I pointed out that the whole equation of housing can be put this way: The Philippines has to build five times the number of housing units that Singapore built in the last 25 years of its successful high-rise housing program… by next week, if it wants to eliminate the housing backlog.
A daunting task it may be, but if we are to avert the mother of all crises, then we had better face up to a future of more cholera outbreaks, five-hour commutes, crime coming out of our ears, a water and electricity shortage, totally un-breathable air and the squeeze of 20 million souls all longing for their place in the city.