TAO-Pilipinas, Inc.
"It is time for us to go to the people rather than ask the people, especially the poor, to come to us."
As an advocate of participatory processes, TAO-Pilipinas works closely and collaboratively with its partner communities in the planning and design, development, and management of various projects. Here are our current partner communities / people’s organizations:
APOLA is located in Sitio Tapayan, Barangay Sta. Ana, Taytay, Rizal. It is the umbrella organization of 3 federations — Lupang Arenda Homeowners Federation, Inc. (LAHOFI); Arenda Urban Poor Federation, Inc. (AUPFI); and Koalisyon ng Pagbabago sa Lupang Arenda Council of Leaders, Inc. (KOALISYON) — that comprises over 19,000 families (as of 2011) in 7 puroks within 80 hectares of land.
Under Presidential Proclamation 704 in 1995, the 80-hectare land in Lupang Arenda was allocated to families affected by the Pasig River Rehabilitation and to informal settlers in Taytay. However, PP 704 was revoked by Executive Order 854 in the aftermath of flooding caused by Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) in 2009. APOLA actively engages with the local and national governments to push for a new proclamation to re-establish Lupang Arenda as a site for socialized housing development. The decades of struggle for the proclamation will pave way for achieving security of tenure in Lupang Arenda.
MASAGANA (Mamamayan Sama-samang Gumagabay at Nagtatanggol ng Api) of Angat Homeowners Association, Inc. is a community-based organization in Barangay Pulong Yantok, Angat, Bulacan that aspires for a safe and sustainable settlement. The community was established in 2009 as a breakaway group from Sanagmana, a federation of informal settler families residing in Navotas City. Families of Masagana initially relocated in the middle of a reclaimed fishpond in Barangay Tanza but the site eventually became permanently flooded due to dike breaches.
The community resolved to search for a resettlement area and found a 1.4-hectare agro-industrial land in Angat, Bulacan that they were able to purchase through funds from the Asian Coalition for Community Action (ACCA) Navotas Big Project in 2010. After an arduous process of land reclassification, various certifications, and local acceptance, Masagana finally began resettling in Angat in 2012. Currently, 17 houses have been constructed in Masagana Area through the ACCA loan (11 houses have been completed while 6 are under construction). Out of the 63 household members of Masagana, 21 households are permanently residing in the area.
PPVHOA is composed of 200 informal settler families currently residing in Binondo, Manila. The community has identified the GSIS property on De Dios Street, Barangay 632, Sta. Mesa, Manila as their in-city housing site. With a total land area of 3,164 square meters, the site will accommodate a five-storey building with 200 residential units, 2 commercial units, and 3 units for a multipurpose hall. The project will be funded through a loan under the vertical CMP (Community Mortgage Program) of Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC).The community is currently waiting for the purchase of land by SHFC from GSIS. A usufruct agreement is being considered for land ownership to make the project affordable to all members of PPVHOA.
The BEC of Santuario Parish are a group of communities divided into three non-contiguous areas (called Kawan 1, 2 and 3) in Barangay Tandang Sora, Quezon City. Kawan 1 has 643 households; Kawan 2 has 1,022 households; while Kawan 3 has around 800 households. While majority of the households in all three kawan areas already have security of tenure, there are still a few informal settlements scattered across the communities. The community associations are currently at different stages of securing land tenure. Most of them are planning to apply (or are currently applying) for the Community Mortgage Program (CMP) of Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC).