ILOILO City’s renewed insistence on proper landfill and infrastructure for future relocation sites is welcome — but long overdue. For years, some relocated families have lived through the consequences ofpoorly planned housing projects: flooded homes, unstable ground, lack of access roads, and communities that, in the words of the Iloilo City Local Housing Office (ICHLO), still “look like informal settlements even if they are resettlement areas.”
Beyond technical lapses, these are human costs.
Relocation, when done without groundwork, simply transfers suffering from one place to another. Families displaced from danger zones were moved to “safer” areas that turned out to be just as perilous. Mothers carried buckets of water through mud. Children walked on makeshift planks because roads were never built. Senior citizens struggled in houses perched on uneven soil.
This is what happens when there is no comprehensive housing planning.
To its credit, the city acknowledges the shortcomings. The ICHLO has been candid: past relocation efforts resulted in “lot-only” sites with flimsy houses and no proper landfill. This honesty must be lauded. But honesty is not enough.
The city must audit its old relocation projects — publicly, thoroughly, and without defensiveness.
An audit is not an exercise in blame. It is a commitment to learning. It is a promise to families who trusted the government only to find themselves back in danger. It is also the only way to ensure taxpayers are not repeatedly funding the same mistakes.
Which sites lack drainage or sit below road level? How many families were relocated to areas knowingly unprepared? What contractors or oversight lapses allowed this to happen? These are questions the public deserves answers to.
The city’s current approach — demanding proper landfill, requiring road networks, tapping Department of Public Works and Highways and Community Environment and Natural Resources Office for surplus materials — is a step in the right direction. But forward planning must go hand in hand with accountability. We cannot pretend the past did not happen, especially when the people who bore its weight still live in flooded, unfinished communities today.
Iloilo City prides itself on being a model of good governance and resilience. True resilience demands more than future-proofing — it requires confronting past failures head-on.
A city that learns from its mistakes becomes stronger. A city that hides them risks repeating them—at the expense of its most vulnerable citizens.
