Manila's Tondo Foreshore

By 1970 it was clear to the thousands of poor families in the Tondo foreshore area along Manila Bay that, despite their many protests, the Government intended to demolish their homes and relocate them 40-45 km from the city. At this point, a group of both Catholic and Protestant priests who had worked with the people for years, helped them to form the Zone One Tondo Organization (ZOTO), a federation of neighbourhood organizations that would be democratic and strong enough to be taken seriously by the government.

ZOTO borrowed much of its spirit and methods from the labour unions, using tactics available to the poor such as marches and rallies. It tried to educate people through workshops and reflection sessions but believed that the best learning came in and through action.

The people's actions centred on opposing government plans for the foreshore area which were to convert it into a support base for a new international container pier, with upper income housing units, commercial buildings and small-scale industry. The 180,000 residents on the narrow strip of land behind the inter-island piers were to be relocated.

ZOTO was able to drive a wedge between the government and the founders of the project, namely the German Government and the World Bank. A compromise was worked out by which only those in the immediate vicinity of the new pier, accounting for some 15-20 per cent of residents, would be relocated to a site just north of Tondo at Dagat Dagatan. The remaining families would receive land titles and have their neighbourhoods upgraded.

Source: Murphy, Denis, "A decent place to live--urban poor in Asia", Asian Coalition for Housing Rights, Bangkok, 1990.