MANILA — Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte said on Wednesday federalism is critical in solving overpopulation in the cities.
In a statement, Belmonte said rapid urbanization and depletion of resources in highly urbanized cities can be stopped through federalism.
“In seven or eight years’ time, our population in Quezon City has increased by more than 400,000. It’s not that we’re lacking, but we keep building and building, pero dumarami ang migrants (but the number of migrants continue to rise),” Belmonte said, noting the city is one of the cities in Metro Manila suffering from overpopulation brought about by the influx of people from the rural areas looking for jobs.
Belmonte said that developing the provinces will keep rural residents from going to Metro Manila and will address key economic problems like poverty and lack of decent housing.
“Ideally, according to the principles of federalism, magkakaroon nang pantay-pantay na kaunlaran sa buong Pilipinas kaya ‘yung mga nakatira sa mga mahihirap na bahagi ng bayan, hindi na nila kailangan maghanap ng pagkakataon o oportunidad para umasenso sa kalunsuran (Ideally, according to the principles of federalism, there will be equal development in the entire Philippines, so those who live in the poor areas of the country, they will no longer need to find opportunities to progress in the cities),” Belmonte said.
She added federalism will enable local governments to have more assets or more resources to spend on their own people.
“Here in Quezon City we will be able to stabilize our population growth at mas mabilis nating mabibigay ‘yung pangangailangan ng taumbayan (and we can quickly provide for the needs of our residents),” she said.
The local official explained the rural-to-urban migration is one major factor in the unabated increase of informal settler families (ISFs) in Quezon City.
ISFs in Quezon City have been placed at 190,000 — 4,228 of whom reside along waterways and road right-of-ways while the other 2,235 live along creeks and rivers. (PNA)
