‘SQUATTING DEEPENS’: Iloilo City’s informal settlers surge past 22,000

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By Rjay Zuriaga Castor

The number of informal settler families (ISFs) in Iloilo City surged to 22,038 as of the first quarter of 2025, far surpassing the city’s projections for the 2016–2025 planning period.

Iloilo City Local Housing Office (ICLHO) Head Atty. Peter Jason Millare admitted the spike reflects a worsening housing and urban planning crisis.

“It is really big as compared to before the 2016 to 2025 planning period listed at around 15,000. The numbers really ballooned,” he said in an interview on Sept. 10.

Millare said they completed the tagging and census of informal settlers across all 180 barangays in April 2025.

The ICLHO flagged as alarming the continued rise in ISFs along Iloilo North Bank Road’s Sunset Boulevard, where structures grew from 139 to 155 between February and September 2025 despite earlier tagging operations.

The 16 newly added structures were built on roadside railings in an area that has become a popular leisure spot.

Millare said they plan to coordinate with landowners to verify whether the ISFs along Sunset Boulevard were given consent to occupy the land.

He acknowledged that Iloilo’s fast-growing economy has attracted more families seeking livelihood, worsening the city’s housing backlog.

“We do not want the ISFs to proliferate because that will be a big problem for the city […] That will be a cycle. Our housing backlog should decrease and not increase,” he emphasized.

The city has acquired two relocation sites: one measuring 11,661 square meters and another spanning 18,260 square meters, both to be filled and elevated to prevent flooding.

“Before we relocate families, the site must be fully established, with road networks and access to water and electricity,” Millare said.

Given limited space, ICLHO is prioritizing families displaced by infrastructure projects or living in danger zones such as waterways.

Millare said they are pushing for a policy allowing only those listed in the city-wide survey to qualify for resettlement.

“We need to have a stop-gap measure that we can remove or dismantle without needing relocation otherwise that will be another burden to Iloilo City,” he added.

The city uses validation, interviews, and tagging stickers to identify which families are eligible for relocation.

Those who refuse to relocate will be disqualified from future government assistance.

Millare also warned that some beneficiaries of relocation sites have returned to their previous informal settlements or have illegally rented out or sold their awarded properties.

“That is unlawful. We vehemently condemn the selling of the awards, even just the process of renting it,” he said.

He added that any awarded property found to have been sold would be forfeited and returned to the city, and the new occupant must seek recourse from the seller.

Informal settlers found guilty of such practices will be blacklisted and stripped of their relocation privileges.