An Assessment of the Proliferation of Privately-Owned Lands in Paranaque in exchange for its Metropolitan Growth

Abstract

Land is very essential to the society because it is one of the major sources of economic power. Acquiring such factor of production means one has an advantage in generating raw materials and constructing establishments for the locality. It is also with land why societies exist because these groups of people settled and exhaust their food and other resources. But lands nowadays are part of the trading commodities and are often acquired and exploited by the elites who use it to gain power over the population dwelling on the owned land. In line with this, greed and selfishness, by means of privatization, reign in the contemporary society instead of communally sharing this primary natural resource. The city of Paranaque is experiencing such scenario wherein majority of the land area are owned by the private sector which hinders further development initiated by the local government. Permissions from various sectors (like developers, homeowners, etc) are needed in order for a government program to push through even though its aim is to provide basic social services which will definitely benefit the majority. This research aims to unlock possibilities in determining the rationale behind the city’s proliferation of privately-owned lands in its urban design. If this research will be disseminated, it might help the government and fellow men and women to contemplate on this problem and hopefully shift its policies in land use plan, if still possible, to a more socially-friendly environment. Qualitative and quantitative method of research will be utilized in handling this study wherein the framework used by the researcher is Historical Materialism.