BASECO Bagong Buhay Project

Port Area, Manila

BASECO is an urban-poor community of more than 47,000 families occupying 52 hectares of land
reclaimed from the Manila Bay. The land used to be owned by a now-closed shipbuilding firm of the
same name and has proclaimed by the national government for transfer to its residents.
Even before the fire of January 2004, people at BASECO lived in squalid conditions. Most of the
ramshackle dwellings were built on stilts on swampy or slimy ground; toilet facilities were often a hole in
the floor, and high tides flooded the houses with the polluted waters of Manila Bay.
Because their houses were crowded against one
another, the community had twice been struck by fire
before 2004. But the fire of 11 January 2004 was the
most devastating. During that six-hour fire, many
panicked residents fled the flames by wading into the
bay. More than 20,000 families lost their
homessome for the third timeand more than 2,500
houses were burned down. The homeless families were
given temporary shelter in empty warehouses,
basketball courts, and chapels. To the fire victims, it
seemed that their miserable living conditions had
become more miserable.
The local government of Manila decided to turn the calamity into an opportunity. It joined hands with
many organizations from the private sector to respond to the needs of the community in a more organized
and systematic way. It commissioned two non-government organizations to build a thousand homes each
for the fire victims. One of them is Habitat for Humanity Philippines (HFHP).

The Project
The project has two main components: house
construction and community development. The house
construction component is being carried out by HFHPs
Habitat Building and Resource Center (HBRC), while
the community development component is being
handled by the Center for Community Transformation
(CCT).

House Construction
Because of the soft ground at BASECO, the Habitat Building and Resource Center adopted a new
construction technology: light-weight steel frames bolted on to one-piece concrete slabs that serve as the
houses foundations. The steel frames themselves are cut by computer-guided equipment. Walls consist
of fire-proof cement-fibre boards. The roof is made of galvanized aluminum, which keeps the occupants
cool even under the intense, tropical sun. Because floor area was set as sixteen square meters, the roof is
pitched to allow the construction of a sleeping loft that increases living space to twenty-six square meters.
The Habitat houses at BASECO do not use inexpensive technology. However, with good proper
management, Habitat is able to build them with direct costs of PhP40,000 per unit (or 589 @ PhP 67.99:
1).
Aside from the houses, Habitat also paves the ground between every two rows of Habitat houses. As
these pavements are not covered by the house costs to be amortized by the homepartners, Habitat needs to
engage in a separate fund-raising effort for them. Each strip of pavement costs PhP 12,000 (or 177 @
PhP 67.99: 1).
In the initial phase, Habitat will build 1,000 houses before the end of 2005. However, there are 10,000
more families in BASECO who need decent, durable, and affordable shelter, and it is foreseen that
Habitat will again be tapped to assist these families address this basic need.
Community Development
As this is a Save and Build project, one of the first objectives of community development is to organize
the homepartners into savings groups. This is a major undertaking, as the homepartners, having been
informal settlers, had previously not paid for shelter (unless they rented space from other informal settlers
in the area). Organizing work will be handled by the CCT, a micro-finance institute (MFI), and through
its efforts, the homepartners will acquire the values of saving, budgeting and planning for the future.
From mobilizing savings for mortgage payments, these savings groups can move into accumulating
capital for micro enterprises, which can be matched with business loans from CCT. The CCT also has
programs for life insurance, mortuary services, education loans, health loans, etc. Given the CCTs track
record as an MFI in other areas of the country, Habitat is optimistic that the homepartners will soon
become productive members of society.
HFHP is also seeking partners for other community-development components, such as education and
health, safety and the environment. It has also partnered with a government agency, the National
Commission for Culture and the Arts, which has planted mangrove trees, organized some of the local
youth into a cultural troupe, and sponsored a mural-painting contest (on the walls of the end units of the
Habitat houses). However, more remains to be done in terms of inculcating among the homepartners the
values of taking care of the community and in demanding greater accountability from elected local
leaders.
Philippine National Office
Unit 12-A, 12/F PET Plans Tower, #444 EDSA, Guadalupe Viejo, Makati City 1211
Tel. No. (632) 897-3069 Telefax (632) 897-3248 E-mail: hfhphil@yahoo.com www.habitat.org.ph