Can we build more than paper towns?: An institutional analysis of socialized resettlement housing policy in the Philippines.

Abstract

Can we build more than paper towns? Resettlement is more than just the transferring a community from one place to another. It is the uprooting and re-rooting of individual lives –the reconfiguring of community living.The study of relocation planning and administration, as well as relocation adaptation would be very important in contemporary academic and practical disciplines. Rural to urban migration, shelter crises and housing rights violations, after all, continue to occur at an alarming frequency in modern day Philippines. What is worse is that these usually burden the already vulnerable societal sectors. Taking into account the sheer magnitude, alone, of the prospective stakeholders that such research could benefit, the relevance of a study could be well established. Research in these two fields of study could very well mean the difference between uneven development and inclusive development and more viable means to pursue better standards of living felt by all. Given the tendency of government led resettlement programs to fail to uphold the standards for what is to be acknowledged as adequate housing (that is, housing which is makes possible the achievement of health, well being and security), we can assume that there is a weak link somewhere in the relocation process. The role of government and public institutions in the promotion of adequate housing accessible to all cannot be undermined. It is in this vein that the government has provided for key housing institutions to promote accessible adequate housing through shelter programs and policies. However, given the evidence that seem to point out that housing standards are inadequate, are institutionalized planning and administrative practices conducive to the achievement of adequate housing? [Introduction]