Presentation of my paper for Anthropology 275 (Seminar in Problems of Contemporary Culture Change: Social Movements and Collective Actions) graduate class at the University of the Philippines Diliman.

1. Collaboration as a Form of Resistance:
The Struggle for On-Site Relocation
among Informal Settlers of Quezon City
Jessie G. Varquez, Jr.
Anthropology 275. Professor Mary Racelis.
University of the Philippines Diliman
12 March 2012

2. Outline
I. Introduction
II. Doña Imelda as the Site of Resistance
III. The Struggle for Security of Tenure
IV. Covenant with the President; Co-optation with the State
V. Peoples Planning Processes
VI. Negotiation, Ambivalence and Success
VII. The Continuing Saga

3. Introduction
• Community Organizers Multiversity (COM)
– Profile of the NGO: VMG, leadership and staff
– Projects and activities, funding partners
– Victories, challenges and constraints
• Fieldworks conducted
– Workshops, Technical Planning, Public Hearing,
Interviews and Observations

4. Theoretical underpinnings
“In other words, like it or not, the state does matter, and
one needs to take into account when discussing the
potential of urban subaltern activism.” (Asef Bayat, 2010)
“Thus, the relevant point is not whether squatters are
politicized or whether they have political connections,
but that their very existence and identity as collective
actors are entirely defined and enhanced by the political
system in a patronizing relationship vis-à-vis the franchise
of their right to settle in the city.” (Manuel Castells, 1983)

5. Doña Imelda as the Site of Resistance
• 2007 Population: 17, 647
• 17 Informal Settler (ISF)
communities; 1, 136
– 8 Riverside
– 9 Non-Riverside
• Riverside communities are
located in Kapiligan St
• Ugnayang Lakas ng mga
Apektadong Pamilya sa
Baybayin ng Ilog Pasig at mga
Tributary (ULAP)-Doña Imelda

6. The Struggle for Security of Tenure
• Some 2,610 families have no
security of tenure
• More than half or 1,136 families are
living along the banks of the San
Juan River (Kapiligan ISF)
• Houses in riverside communities
are mostly makeshift
• Sharers, i.e. families living with
other families in a single structure,
are common.
• All houses in riverside communities
have second or third floors.

8. Covenant with the President;
Working with the State
1. Walang ebiksiyon kung 5. Trabaho
walang disenteng 6. Kapayapaan.
relokasyon. 7. Rehabilitasyon pagkatapos
2. Pagsasaayos ng mga ng Bagyong Ondoy.
maralitang pamayanana sa 8. Paghirang.
mga lungsod.
3. Paghahatid ng mga batayang 9. Pakikilahok ng mga
serbisyo sa mga komunidad. mamamayan.
4. Badyet sa pabahay.

9. People Planning Processes
• Land Research
• Identifying sites for Near-Site Relocation
• Housing Design
• Costing
• Workshop with Technical Assistance Organization
(TAO)-Pilipinas
• Meeting at FDUP for the soil test
• Public Hearing at Barangay Hall

10. Negotiation, Ambivalence and Success
“At ito ay isang breakthrough. Ibig sabihin nito, sa kasaysayan
ito ang nauna. Nanganganay, mahirap i-ere.”
“Tinutuloy ko pa rin ang pangungulit sa gobyerno. Tayo
mahusay tayong magtulak, kaya magtiyaga tayo mga kasama.”
“Mixed emotion din ako eh. Ano ba talaga ang mangyayari
‘pag gumalaw na ang project na ‘to? Pero masaya ako dahil
natulak natin ang advocacy natin.”
– Jose Morales, ULAP President
In addressing his fellow community leaders

11. Negotiation, Ambivalence and Success
“Bumaba talaga siya sa ilalim ng tulay, dinaanan niya ang mga bahay na
tinitirhan namin. Kaya buo ang pag-asa namin na may patutunguhan
ito. Maayos naman siya na kausap.”
“Sa hirap po nito, ako mismo hindi maggaganito kung wala itong
patutunguhan.”
“Eh kung walang sobra, saan kami, sa langit? ‘Wag niyo na kaming
tawagin kung nagtataguan tayo rito! Totoo yan, ‘di kami nagbibiro.”
- Zosima Evardone
81 Kapiligan Community Leader

12. The Continuing Saga
• Collaboration with government agencies
– Quezon City LGU (UPAO), DENR, DPWH, PCUP, NHA,
HUDCC
• Issues at hand
– Local resistance
– Land: research, reclassification, acquisition
– 3-meter easement
– Staging site
– Costing and design

13. Working references
Bayat, Asef. 2010. Life as Politics: How Ordinary People Change the Middle
East. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
Brown, Michael F. 1996. “On Resisting Resistance”. In American
Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 98, No. 4 (Dec., 1996), pp. 729-735.
Castells, Manuel. 1983. The City and the Grassroots: A Cross-Cultural Theory
of Urban Social Movements. London: Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd.
Friedmann, John. 1992. Empowerment : The Politics of Alternative
Development. Cambridge, MA : Blackwell.
Ortner, Sherry B. 1995. “Resistance and the Problem of Ethnographic Refusal”.
In Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 37, No. 1. (Jan., 1995),
pp. 173-193.