More than half a million Filipino families are living in Metro Manila as informal settlers, a problem to which the government hopes to find a solution within the next 10 years.
Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Bayani Fernando, in a report presented to President Arroyo and members of her Cabinet, said there are about 540,000 families living in the metropolis as squatters.
According to him, the government, through an inter-agency committee that he chairs, is revisiting its programs and projects for informal settlers in an effort to put an end to the problem by 2018.