40 Suarez, Denise Joyce P.

| 2B-PH

Informal Settlers Reflection

As we walk through the streets of Metro Manila, we can witness a lot of informal settlers.
These are the people with no permanent addresses. They settle on the streets since they dont
have the capability of building their own homes. They rely on other peoples money to survive.
Begging for money has been their regular thing. Some live by the slum areas or places we call
smokey mountains while some settle under bridges and old infrastructures. National Capital
Regions nearly 13 million residents reportedly live in informal settlements.
Informal Settlers dont live in peace. Not only do typhoons routinely overbear their
existence, but they also face a traumatizing cycle of eviction and relocation. The government
evicts a slum, demolishes the buildings, and relocates the residents to far-flung towns those
residents then move back to Manila and rebuild anew. This cycle leads to miserable construction
and destabilized communities, leaving slum dwellers with limited capacity to adapt to disaster
risk and climate change. Yet the relatively weak government offers few solutions other than to
crack down on slum dwellers even harder.
Seeing such families makes me realize that our economic distribution is indeed unequal.
The famous saying that goes, The rich becomes richer and the poor gets poorer, is true and
evident in our country. By this, I start to question our government. How come they dont help the
poor? How come they dont sponsor the education of poor children? And why do they kick out
informal settlers instead of building homes for them?
Informal settlers need rescue from people like us. Simple donations, like used clothes and
shoes can be of great help for them. The coins that we used to underestimate can make a great
difference to them. If everyone that is capable to give, is willing to help, then, we can take their
living a lot more comfortable.