Housing Dispossession in Laon, Barangay Veinte Reales, Valenzuela: Investigating the Political Moralization of Urban Poor Resistance

Abstract

This research investigates the political moralization of Philippine urban poor resistance in Barangay Veinte Reales, Valenzuela City amidst conditions of housing dispossession. Existing literature shows that Manila subalterns occupy precarious politico-geographical spaces due to inequalities in local housing policy, facilitating elite accumulation of wealth and the destruction of informal settlements. Studying this phenomenon is especially warranted in the area of Laon, as the Valenzuela government had recently displaced hundreds of families amidst widespread contention over the construction of a vertical housing project. Through a narrative research model and the data-collection methods of a focus group discussion with various key informant interviews, the study found that subaltern resistance was moralized along four typologies: (1) community defense, (2) rights-based reasoning, (3) prolonged residence, and (4) alienation from the political order. With amorphous methods and repertoires that seek to confront state power, the researchers found that the formulation of alternative subjectivities over the course of political struggle readily advanced the capacities of the urban poor for future resistance.