President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo recently created a new body to craft a comprehensive shelter program (CSP) and ensure that only qualified beneficiaries benefit from the program.

The President issued Executive Order No. 803 last May, creating the Metro Manila Inter Agency Committee on Informal Settlers (MMIAC) tasked to identify qualified informal settlers for the government’s resettlement program with the help of local government units and human rights group; and adopt a registration process in determining the rightful and qualified beneficiaries of government’s housing programs as against professional squatters and squatting syndicates.

Arroyo said the “nefarious and illegal activities” of professional squatters and squatting syndicates must be effectively curtailed to ensure that only deserving informal settlers are benefited by the government’s housing programs. EO 803 noted that part of government’s medium term development plan includes the decongestion of Metro Manila by forming new cores of government and housing centers Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

The MMIAC is chaired by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and co-chaired by the National Housing Authority (NHA).

Along this line, members of the new committee include the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor, National Anti-Poverty Commission, Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Interior and Local Government, Office of the President – External Affairs and Department of Budget and Management. Under the directive, the MMIAC will develop a CSP for qualified informal settlers, provide policy directions and guidelines for the smooth and effective implementation of the CSP as well as to seek funds and logistical support from participating agencies and the private sector.

It is in this regard that the President directed all government agencies to “actively cooperate and support the MMIAC.”