There is a downside to the flood of investment pouring into Davao City: a tsunami of informal settlers putting up hovels in riverbanks, coastal areas, roadsides in highways and any available spaces that are considered danger zones.
As Davao City progresses, more people from outside particularly the poor are coming in to stake their lot and future on better opportunities in the city.
But Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, no matter that his heart bleeds for the settlers, is unfazed by the transmigration and the fact of people placing safety at risk just to have a roof over their head.
This is a universal phenomenon, said Duterte in the recent edition of Gikan sa Masa Para sa Masa television program on ABS/CBN.
Duterte said the informal settlers come from neighboring provinces and regions either to escape violence or migrate to the city for economic opportunities.
He said he is not prone to drive the informal settlers away from the risky areas where they have put up shanties.
Their only sin is that they are poor, he said.
Duterte said transmigration is a universal economic thing: people go to places where they could have a peaceful and better future.
This is also happening in other areas, he said.
Social workers say many of newly-arrived informal settlers here come from regions wracked by violence or small vendors from other provinces temporarily pitching shanties anywhere as they find their place under the sun in this city of 1.4 million dubbed as the premier city of Mindanao.
Asked in the program by co-host Geraldine Tiu about what the local government plans to do with the informal settlers, Duterte said: I can send demolition crews, but where will I relocate them?
The only way for this problem to be solved is for the national government to increase its economic status to be able to provide employment to people, he said.
DAVAO CITY TURNING INTO HAVEN FOR POOR
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