On the City’s Margins
Likhaan health clinic in Apelo Cruz, Manila
In the slum of Apelo Cruz in Manila, most people will tell you that they are from somewhere else, often a small village on another island of the Philippines. They say they still have family there, but there just wasn’t enough land to be able to make a living. So they came to the city in search of work.
They may find work, but secure access to land in the city is another question.
While the houses in Apelo Cruz are tiny and crowded along the sides of a trash-filled canal, residents do their best to make their houses attractive places to live: potted flowers are placed lovingly at the door, and posters on the walls cover the make-shift construction. Families built where they found open land, and where nobody forced them to leave. But they struggle to get electricity and access to water and sanitation because the city claims they are not legal residents.
As one resident told Inter Pares staff, “The government says we should not be living here because it is not our land and it sometimes floods. But we built our houses here – they may not look like much but they are all we have…” She looked over to where children played in the lane. “…And we raised our families here. We work here. Where else can we go?”
Inter Pares’ counterpart Likhaan has been working with the women of Apelo Cruz for many years, creating the Apelo Women’s Health Association to address issues of reproductive and community health. The women asserted that gaining legal title to their land would lift the constant threat of expulsion, allowing them to invest in better-quality permanent homes – making the houses more secure, as well as improving families’ health and sanitation. Decent housing is fundamental to people’s lives, and security of land ownership is critical to people’s ability to invest in their homes.
So with the help of Likhaan, neighbourhood women organized the vast majority of the community, and established the Apelo Cruz Neighborhood Association (ACNA) to investigate how to purchase the land from the wealthy absentee landlords. But when ACNA tried to register to purchase the land, it was faced with a new regulation preventing the official registration of more than one neighbourhood association per community. ACNA discovered that a religious housing association – which represents only 10 per cent of local residents but has influential connections – had already registered. And that association was now trying to impose curfews and restrictions on sexual education and family planning in the community, in accordance with their own beliefs.
Just recently, the two associations have agreed to merge; the new structure, adopted with Likhaan’s advice, has a democratic structure, which gives ACNA members majority control. Residents can now purchase the land, securing their homes and their futures.
| Reviewed May 21, 2010 |  |
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