After Typhoon Ondoy, urban poor families living along the embankments of Manggahan Floodway faced forced eviction and demolition under EO 854, s. 2009, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. To protect their right to adequate shelter, the families organized themselves as the Alliance of People’s Organizations Along Manggahan Floodway (APOAMF).

In 2010, APOAMF started to put together a People’s Plan – a resettlement and housing plan made by the urban poor families themselves. A plan of the people, by the people, for the people. With it, APOAMF conducted dialogues with government in order to realize their community’s vision and aspirations in terms of where and how they should live, what their resettlement site should have and look like, and how construction should be financed.

Because of people’s planning and the determination of APOAMF, the families have relocated to an in-city resettlement site with climate-resilient homes and facilities designed according to their needs and vision. The APOAMF housing project is a good example of what people’s planning can achieve and what realizing our right to the city can mean.

Our cities and communities can be reshaped, redesigned, and reimagined with us, the people, at center stage, if we come together, organize, and take action like APOAMF.