Senator Imee Marcos on Monday sought to fast-track the distribution of public lands in “Lupang Arenda,” which has been delayed for almost three decades.

“It's time to resolve the complex story of proclamations for housing informal settlers,” Marcos, who chairs the Senate Committee on Social Justice, Welfare and Rural Development, said, noting that the move may help the government achieve its target of building one million housing units a year.

Marcos filed Senate Resolution 900 to inquire into the “unreasonable delay” in issuing a Presidential proclamation, despite the completed staff work of a Pre-Proclamation Committee in 2018.

The Housing and Urban Development Coordination Council (HUDCC), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and the National Housing Authority (NHA) led the Pre-Proclamation Committee.

According to Marcos, the Presidential Proclamation reserves the 171-hectare “Lupang Arenda” in Taytay, Rizal for socialized housing.

She lamented that 29 years have passed since the first presidential proclamation set aside the said public land to develop low-cost and medium-rise housing for informal settlers living in Lupang Arenda and along the Pasig River.

“Tens of thousands of informal settlers' households await a conclusive Presidential proclamation on Lupang Arenda. It would bring the government closer to its target of building one million housing units each year, as promised," said Marcos.

In 1995, then President Fidel Ramos issued Proclamation 704 to set aside 80 hectares of land for informal settlers along the Pasig River and poor families in Taytay, Rizal.

Eleven years later, then-president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued Proclamation 1160, granting 20 parcels of land for urban poor families in the Manggahan Flood Complex and homeless employees of the Rizal provincial government.

However, in the aftermath of Typhoon Ondoy in 2009, Macapagal-Arroyo revoked both proclamations amid fears of obstructing the Napindan River -- a tributary of the Pasig River -- and causing severe floods and loss of lives.

Former President Rodrigo Duterte restored Proclamation 704 through Executive Order 93 in 2019, but as of March 2022, only 41 certificates of land ownership had been distributed to informal settlers occupying 2.1 hectares of land in Lupang Arenda.

In September last year, the DENR had yet to provide the clearance required before the entire Lupang Arenda could be proclaimed a public housing area.

Senator Marcos noted that San Miguel Corporation's decision last March to cancel its Pasig River Expressway (PAREX) project has eased concerns about environmental degradation, flooding, earthquake risks, reduced river flow, and the interruption of duck raisers' livelihood along the Napindan River.