Caloocan City Mayor Enrico “Recom” Echiverri yesterday warned squatting syndicates operating in the northern part of the city to stop their illegal activities or face prosecution.
According to Echiverri, aside from the influx of migrants from neighboring congested cities, the presence of these groups contribute to the steady increase in the city’s population.
Echiverri said he has directed the Urban Poor Affairs Office (UPAO) to conduct intensified census, monitoring and tagging operations to ensure that legitimate residents of the city would benefit first from the programs and projects designed to meet this sector’s needs.
A recent report from UPAO listed around 4,429 informal settlers occupy lands identified as local government properties, 29,474 dwelling in national government properties, 17,771 residing on privately-owned lands, and 6,508 living in places identified as danger areas such as waterways, rights of way, and railroad tracks.
Echiverri said at the moment, the UPAO is handling nine ongoing projects to address the needs of the homeless and of the urban poor.
He enumerated these as the community mortgage program (CMP), which benefited more than 4,165 families; proclamation of areas as socialized housing sites such as the civic center in Camarin, Philippine National Railway non-core property and the Tala development project; Camarin 1 and 2 projects; the conversion of open spaces in Camarin into residential areas; expropriation cases; Pangarap Village project; Southrail project; and other relocation projects.
Echiverri noted that more than 30,132 families have benefited from these projects as his administration continues to find ways to address the challenge of squatting and informal settling.