Squatting Colonies

Squatting is the act of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building, usually residential[1], that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use. Squatting is significantly more common in urban areas than rural areas, especially when urban decay occurs. According to author Robert Neuwirth, there are one billion squatters globally, that is to say about one in every seven people on the planet.[2] Yet, according to Kesia Reeve, "squatting is largely absent from policy and academic debate and is rarely conceptualized, as a problem, as a symptom, or as a social or housing movement."[3]

In Metro Manila, squatting, or Iskwater in Tagalog, is a major issue in Filipino society, especially in industrialized areas of the society. Squatting was started after World War II, as people built makeshift houses called Barong-Barong in abandoned private property plots.

The Government tried to transfer those squatters to low cost housing projects, especially in Tondo (in the former Smokey Mountain landfill), Taguig (BLISS Housing Project), and in Rodriguez (formerly Montalban), Rizal