INTRODUCTION
Sa ating mga kapatid sa hanay ng mga maralitang taga-lungsod, ako’y nagagalak at naipatupad din natin sa wakas ang ating hinahangad na pagpapawalang-bisa ng PD 772. Ito ang isa sa mga ipinangako natin sa Social Reform Agenda, at ako’y nagpapasalamat sa lahat na tayo’y hindi nabigo upang ang pangarap na kalutasan ng ating suliranin sa kahirapan ay magagampanan na ng lubusan.

Sa aking paglagda nitong batas 8368, ako’y umaasa na sama-sama pa rin nating isasa-ayos ang mga bagay na may kinalaman sa mga maralitang taga-lungsod.

After much debate and deliberation in both houses of Congress, the repeal of Presidential Decree No. 772, also known as the Anti-Squatting Law, has finally come about with our enactment of RA 8368.

As befits a law that is crucial to the furtherance of our Social Reform Agenda (SRA), the legislative and executive branches and hundreds of thousands of common Filipinos are celebrating the occasion through this signing ceremony, an earlier TV program beamed nationwide, and other manifestations of thanksgiving.

Already, this measure is being lauded in rallies as a triumph for social justice through the dismantling of another vestige of strongman repression. Such popular acclamation should encourage us — the executive and the legislative — to re-double our efforts to uplift the conditions of our underprivileged sectors.
ACHIEVING GROWTH WITH EQUITY
Brief as RA 8368 may be, it contains provisions that will change the lives of thousands of disadvantaged urban Filipinos.

It is a moral victory for the urban poor, particularly those who face lawsuits or were put behind bars merely because their poverty forced them to squat on property not rightfully theirs. Under this new law, all cases under the provisions of Presidential Decree 772 are dismissed and all those serving sentences because of their violation of this Martial-Law decree must be set free, provided that they are not in jail for other offenses.

The repeal of the Anti-Squatting Law, however, does not mean that government is condoning squatting. RA 8368 has countervailing measures upholding the sanctions prescribed against professional squatters and squatting syndicates as prescribed in Section 27 of the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992 (RA 7279).

Professional squatters and squatting syndicates will still have to face the full force of the law. Thus, while this new law upholds the social and human rights of the urban poor, particularly their freedom of abode, it also ensures that such rights are not abused nor used as excuses to trample upon the rights of others.

This law means that the indiscriminate demolition of squatters’ houses will finally stop. We are ending the often-violent confrontations between law enforcers and squatters resisting eviction. We put to a halt the anguish of the poor urban dwellers who are constantly put on notice to move but have nowhere to go. It is a moral weapon for the urban poor who, now provided with another opportunity to grow, should be able to use this opportunity to improve their lives and increase their capabilities.

But, I repeat, this law must not be construed as the go-signal for any squatter to pitch a tent or build a shanty on any vacant piece of land, be it private or public in nature. We will strictly implement the provisions of RA 7279 to discourage squatting, particularly sections 27 and 28 where public safety and public interest are involved. The Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP) and their duly-accredited urban poor organizations will be our partners in ensuring that all concerned fully understand that landowners are not unjustly deprived of their property.

Also, local government units should now re-double their efforts to provide more low-cost housing for their homeless constituents, as provided for in RA 7835 or the Comprehensive and Integrated Shelter and Financing Act.

I also make this appeal to urban landowners to find productive use for their idle lands to prevent squatting. It is the moral obligation of those who have property interests to utilize their assets efficiently to advance the greater good.
SQUATTERS: A SERIOUS SOCIAL CONCERN
The problem of squatting has hounded government for several decades. Once viewed simply as an offshoot of urban homelessness, it has proven to be a complex of socio-economic problems affecting the total fabric of our society. Garbage disposal, health and sanitation, environmental degradation, and crimes, including drug abuse, are but some of the graver offshoots of squatting which we must address in a holistic and determined way.

We have decriminalized squatting through RA 8368. But we must recognize that problems exist. The result of population growth and earlier migration to urban centers, squatting is the mirror of poverty. We are addressing the root cause of the squatter problem through our Social Reform Agenda, our livelihood and job-generation programs, and a massive housing effort that has already provided assistance to some 900,000 families or close to 5,000,000 individuals.
These programs seek to empower our poorer sectors and spread growth equitably to the countryside. To reinforce our SRA, government has identified and is developing some 65 growth centers in our 16 administrative regions throughout our vast archipelago under the PEZA Law.
We will do battle with poverty through SRA and our economic growth strategies. I am thus renewing my call to the legislative branch to speed up the approval of all the anti-poverty bills, including the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP), the Land Use Code, the Agricultural Productivity and Irrigation bill and the Fisheries Code, now pending in Congress that we may have more weapons with which we may empower the disenfranchised sectors of Philippine society.
THE MESSAGE IS CLEAR
In today’s ceremony, our message is clear: growth with equity is our primary goal. Government will strive mightily to ensure that our poorer sectors are provided the opportunities to empower themselves.

Once again, we show our people today the solidarity of the legislative, the executive, and the private sector to improve the lives of our poor.

I thank most sincerely the lawmakers who were major players in the passage of this law: Cong. Gregorio Andolana, principal author and committee chairman-sponsor; Congressmen Sergio Apostol, co-author and committee chairman-sponsor; also, the late Elias Lopez, Dante Liban, Leonardo Montemayor, Sergio Apostol, Raul Gonzalez, Edcel Lagman, Leopoldo San Buenaventura, Temistocles Dejon and Congresswoman Leonor Luciano, co-authors; Cong. Roilo Golez, Amado Bagatsing and Ariel Zartiga, conferees.

In the Senate, we give credit to senators Juan Flavier and Gregorio Honasan, authors, sponsors and conferees; Senators Frank Drilon, Gloria Arroyo, Juan Ponce Enrile, Edgardo Angara, Francisco Tatad, Orlando Mercado and Leticia Shahani, co-authors; and Senator Raul Roco, co-sponsor and conferee.

We express our special thanks to House Speaker joe de Venecia and Senate President Ernesto Maceda who capably shepherded this new law.

We commend all the leaders and representatives of urban poor groups whose patient but incessant lobbying was crucial to the passage of this law.

Minsan pa nating ipinakita na sa pagtutulungan natin makakamit ang ating layunin. Ipagpatuloy natin ang pagkakaisa tungo sa ating kaunlaran!!

Maraming salamat at mabuhay tayong lahat!