# Talk:Squatting in the Philippines

There are over one billion squatters worldwide and the phenomenon is under-represented on Wikipedia. Join Wikipedia:WikiProject_Squatting to help write articles about squatting in every country, or drop a message on the talkpage about something else you'd like to see covered. This is just one of many ways to counter systemic bias on Wikipedia! Mujinga (talk) 15:07, 29 November 2021 (UTC)

This review is transcluded from Talk:Squatting in the Philippines/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.
Reviewer: Cerebellum (talk · contribs) 14:58, 8 December 2021 (UTC)

Hello! I will be reviewing this article.  Should have it finished up by Sunday at the latest! --Cerebellum (talk) 14:58, 8 December 2021 (UTC)

I dropped the ball on this! So sorry, I will finish it today. --Cerebellum (talk) 14:07, 13 December 2021 (UTC)
This was a fascinating article!  I just have a few comments below, I'll place on hold for 7 days so you can address them. --Cerebellum (talk) 17:04, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Great thanks for the comments, I'll have time to answer them later this week. All the best, Mujinga (talk) 09:44, 15 December 2021 (UTC)
Cerebellum those were really helpful comments, thanks again. I've replied on everything now, see what you think Mujinga (talk) 09:25, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
Awesome, everything looks great now :) Happy to pass as GA. --Cerebellum (talk) 12:27, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
Much obliged, nice working with you! Mujinga (talk) 16:26, 17 December 2021 (UTC)


### Criteria
Prose - mostly! a few comments below.
Verifiable - mostly
Coverage - good!
NPOV - mostly
Stable - yes
Illustrated - good!


### Comments
Article structure - I reorganized the sections a bit, this is just a suggestion.  Feel free to revert.
seems to work, always handy to have another pair of eyes on an article! Mujinga (talk) 17:51, 16 December 2021 (UTC)
Do the sources say why the shanties were called barong-barong? Looks like barong means either a weapon or a type of clothing, I don't see the semantic connection.
britannica just says "the barong-barong, a makeshift shack built of salvaged materials (flattened tin cans, scrap lumber, cartons, or billboards) that is common in the poor areas" ... a dictionary definition does not expand on it either but indeed barong seems to mean knife. Mujinga (talk) 17:53, 16 December 2021 (UTC)
After World War II, many people were left homeless in the Philippines and they built makeshift houses called "barong-barong" on abandoned private land. I could not find this information in the EB source, all I saw was, "the barong-barong, a makeshift shack built of salvaged materials".
ah yes so you've read the britannica entry hehe. good point on the first part of the sentence needing another citation, I'll look into that but have mislaid my charger cable so this might be my last edit for today Mujinga (talk) 18:13, 16 December 2021 (UTC)
hmm yes this seems to have slipped in from the section originally at Squatting which I imported and expanded. good spot! Mujinga (talk) 01:42, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
fixed and added a source to say occupations increased following WWII Mujinga (talk) 01:52, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
Resistance to evictions fed into the opposition to the Marcos dictatorship and resulted in the 1986 People Power Revolution. Which page of the source is this on?
i am summarising page 79, especially this bit: "The urban poor were inevitably drawn into the multi-ideological alliances that were  formed after 1983. They became a considerable constituency of such groups as Bayan, Bandila and the Lakas ng Sambayanan, which organized popular mobilizations during this period of intense political upheaval before the change of government in 1986." Mujinga (talk) 01:53, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
Source 21 is a pretty biased editorial, is there a more neutral source?
i think it was an ok source just for showing the events happened, but fortunately a better source was available so I've switched it out Mujinga (talk) 02:18, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
Homelessness is a pressing issue for the Philippines - This is an expression of a POV, I would either remove that statement or attribute it.
agreed, removed Mujinga (talk) 02:09, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
Of the country's population of about 106 million, an estimated 4.5 million are homeless according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. Does the PSA provide figures for the precise category of squatters/informal dwellers? I'm not sure if there is a distinction between homeless people and squatters.
it's tricky, we can only go on the sources here. the PSA doesn't list "homeless" in its concepts and definitions. Mujinga (talk) 02:09, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
this article seems to be equating homeless people and squatters Mujinga (talk) 02:19, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
Causes of homelessness have been attributed - I would change to Causes of homelessness include.
done Mujinga (talk) 01:37, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
indicating the need for government to cooperate with stakeholders to provide affordable housing to all. This sounds like POV press release speak to me, what do you think? Is there a neutral way to rephrase the idea?
i've removed it, don't think it was doing much Mujinga (talk) 01:39, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
Legal section: Do you think this should mention the 1975 Marcos decree as the first sentence?  It would make the section more complete but I'm not sure since the decree is already mentioned in "history".
For me it reads ok as is but happy to discuss further Mujinga (talk) 02:27, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
The Marcos decree criminalizing squatting was annulled by the Anti-Squatting Law Repeal Act of 1997 (RA 8368). This confuses me.  If the Marcos decree was annulled, wouldn't that mean squatting was legal? Which would conflict with the 1992 law criminalizing it? --Cerebellum (talk) 17:04, 13 December 2021 (UTC)
I agree it's confusing, will come back on this one Mujinga (talk) 02:27, 17 December 2021 (UTC)
I've rejigged it a bit, and whilst I'm happy to be corrected by someone who knows more, after reading into it a bit I think that the 1992 law superseded the dictator's decree and worked in a different way to criminalize squatting, then the 1997 act was repealing the decree as part of constitutional cleanup. Squatting was never made legal since the 1992 law was in force whilst the decree was disregarded and then later annulled. Hope that makes sense! Mujinga (talk) 09:08, 17 December 2021 (UTC)

The following content was copied from Community Mortgage Program; please see that page's history for attribution:

The Community Mortgage Program (CMP) was set up following the People Power Revolution (EDSA I) of 1988. It aims to help low-income families who are squatting to find secure tenure by establishing community associations to buy land, to set up infrastructure and to build houses.

I will also leave a note at that page's talk page. - Crisantom (talk) 03:30, 7 January 2023 (UTC)

The following content was copied from Squatting in the Philippines to Poverty in the Philippines.

Out of the country's population of about 106 million, an estimated 4.5 million were homeless according to the Philippine Statistics Authority; of these 3 million were in the capital Manila.

I have already left a note at that page's talk page. - Crisantom (talk) 06:11, 12 February 2023 (UTC)