Manila forms anti-squatting body

MANILA, Philippines — Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna has ordered the creation of a committee to get rid of professional squatters in the city.

The panel would “adopt measures to identify and effectively curtail the activities of professional squatters and squatting syndicates” as well as name public officials and private persons suspected of tolerating them, Lacuna said in Executive Order 26.

The committee should also provide a list of persons alleged to be professional squatters to the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD), the Department of Justice and the Philippine National Police.

It is also tasked to monitor eviction and demolition activities against squatters.

The committee would be headed by the mayor and the city police chief, with representatives from the city’s urban settlements office, barangay bureau, the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor, PCUP’s accredited urban poor group and the DHSUD as members.