ABSTRACT
This chapter describes efforts to promote policies and legislation that incorporate “people's plans” as part of the country's housing strategy for informal settler communities. It examines the people's plans from the perspective of the “right to the city”, both of which are relatively new concepts in Philippine urban development and housing law. Emphasizing the role of informal settler communities as rights-holders and not mere beneficiaries in housing projects, the people's plan approach has the potential to fulfil, protect and promote the urban poor's right to the city. This chapter further explores the interplay between these two concepts in the actual experiences of two informal settler communities in Metro Manila. It argues that, for informal settler communities to realize the right to the city, certain policies and measures must be adopted or institutionalized to strengthen people's participation in housing and make people's planning the core of the Philippines' housing strategy.
