Construction of a ‘Globally Competitive City’ and Gentrification: A Case of Quezon City, the Philippines Submission Date: 1 September 2016 Name: Tsubasa Yuki Student ID: 1541447 MSc International Development (Poverty, Inequality, and Development), International Development Department, School of Government and Society Superviser: Dr. Philip Amis Word Count: 11880 words 1 Abstract This paper examines a case of gentrification in Quezon City, the Phlippines from perspective of comparative urbanism and neoliberal urbanism. Through the analysis of the case, it will be revealed: that a colonial legacy, political and economic reforms in the 1990s have prepared an overall policy environment and socio-economic arrangement, in which the specific case of gentrification takes place; that a development project to construct a ‘globally competitive city’ and the Quezon City Central Business District as its core and market-driven informal settler resettlement strategy depending on revenue from the very project have resulted in the displacement of the informal settlers: and that national and local government and international agencies as the World Bank have played significant roles in formulating a general development goal and strategy, planning and implementing the specific projects of constructing the ‘globally competitive city’ while informal settlers have been effectively excluded from the planning process. Drawing on these findings, this paper indicates that unequal and complicated relations between various agencies are reflected in the process of gentrification and that, while market mechanism per se is not the direct cause of the displacement of the informal settlers and thus the conventional rent gap theory might not be relevant, the market driven development strategy and resettlement project have led to gentrification in Quezon City. 2 Contents Acronymos…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………4 List of Tables and Figures…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..6 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 7 2. Concepts, theories, and frameworks of gentrification research ........................................................ 9 2.1 Definitions of gentrification .......................................................................................................... 9 2.2 Globalized gentrification and comparative urbanism ................................................................ 12 2.3 Neoliberal urbanism and urban development ............................................................................ 14 2.4 The role of government and transnational agencies and gentrification .................................... 16 3. Development of the Quezon City Central Business District and Gentrification ............................... 19 4. Participatory Urban Development and Gentrification in Quezon City ............................................. 28 4.1 Large-scale institutional arrangement: land elites, decentralization and neoliberal turn in the Philippines ......................................................................................................................................... 28 4.2 Construction of a ‘globally competitive city’ and gentrification ................................................. 34 4.3 Privatization of urban development and people’s participation ................................................ 45 5. Concluding Remarks .......................................................................................................................... 51 Annex A: Basic Information about Metro Manila and Quezon City ..................................................... 64 Annex B: Methodology ......................................................................................................................... 67 Annex C Housing Policies in the Philippines ......................................................................................... 69 References……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….55 Annexes………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…64 Annex A Basic Information about Metro Manila and Quezon City……………………………………………….64 Annex B Methodology..……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….67 Annex C Housing Policies in the Philippines……..………………………………………………………………………….69 3 Acronyms BOT: Build-Operate-Transfer CAS: Country Assistance Strategy CISFA: Comprehensive and Integrated Shelter Finance Act CLUP: Comprehensive Land Use Plan CMP: Community Mortgage Program CSO: Civil Society Organization DILG: Department of Interior and Local Governance FDI: Foreign Direct Investment HUDCC: Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council ICT: Information and Communications Technology IFC: International Financing Corporation IMF: International Monetary Fund ISF: Informal Settler Family IT-BPO: Information Technology-Business Process Outsourcing JICA: Japan International Cooperation Association LGC: Local Government Code LGU: Local Government Unit LRT: Light Rail Transit MTPDP: Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan MRT: Metro Rapid Transit NCC: National Competitiveness Council NCR: National Capital Region NEDA: National Economic and Development Authority NFPP: National Framework for Physical Planning NHA: National Housing Authority NUDHF: National Urban Development and Housing Framework PPP: Public-Private Partnership QCCBD: Quezon City Central Business District 4 QCCLUP: Quezon City Comprehensive Land Use Plan SAP: Structural Adjustment Program SRCC-MCHC: Social Resettlement Comprehensive Community-Magic Circle Housing Cooperative SRCC-NTA: San Roque Community Council-North Triangle Association UDHA: Urban Development and Housing Act USAID: United States Agency for International Development 5 List of Tables and Figures Table 1. Description of five districts of the Triangle Park …………………………………………………………………22 Table 2. The number of ISFs relocated from the North Triangle Area (2010-August 2014)……………….25 Table 3. The number of business registered in Quezon City (2005-July 2015)………………………………….43 Table 4. The number of construction permits issued (2008-August 2015)……………………………………….44 Table 5. Median land values in Quezon City and the Triangle Park in 1990, 2000, and 2015……………44 Table A1. Rural, Urban, and Total Population and Proportion (1990-2010)……………………………………..65 Table A2. Growth and distribution of informal settler families from 1991 to 2012………………………….66 Table A3. Informal settlers in Quezon City from 2005-2010…………………………………………………………….66 Table A4. Informal settlers in Metro Manila in 2011 by city…………………………………………………………….66 Table B1. Information about the informants…………………………………………………………………………………..68 Table C1. Housing needs estimated by region, 2011-2016 (in number of households)……………………69 Table C2. Performance of housing policies……………………………………………………………………………………..71 Figure 1. Five economic growth centres in Quezon City…………………………………………………………………..21 Figure 2. CBD-Knowledge Community……………………………………………………………………………………………..21 Figure 3. Five districts of the Triangle Park……………………………………………………………………………………….21 Figure 4. Expert Global Solutions in the East Triangle along EDSA……………………………………………………23 Figure 5. Vertis North in the North Triangle……………………………………………………………………………………..23 Figure 6. High-rise condominiums in the Vertis North……………………………………………………………………..23 Figure 7. High-rise condominiums in the Vertis North and San Roque Community………………………….23 Figure A1. Map of Metro Manila and business districts in the region ………………………………………………64 6 1. Introduction It is often argued that the term ‘gentrification’ was first coined in 1964 by Ruth Glass as she described changes of built environment in London brought about by the middle class and developers, which resulted in displacement of the working class (Glass 1964). Since then, numerous issues about the concept have been discussed, and now the term is used to describe and analyse much broader range of phenomena than it covered in the initial phase of the study. One of the most significant differences between gentrification studies at that time and current gentrification research would be that spatial changes in cities in the Global South have become objects of gentrification studies as well as those in the Global North. Indeed, gentrification has become an analytical concept or a theory that is used to study urban spatial changes and their consequences in planetary scale (Lees et.al 2015, Lees et.al 2016). The case of gentrification in Quezon City, Metro Manila, the Philippines addressed in this paper also belongs to the trend of global wide gentrification research, although this contribution focuses particularly on roles of governments at multiple levels, international agencies, the ways various agencies are involved in the process of gentrification in Quezon City, and contradictions of housing/resettlement strategies took by government agencies. By illustrating how various agencies contribute to shaping the urban spaces in Quezon City, this paper argues that gentrification is caused not simply by market mechanism per se, but is a consequence of development policies supposed to contribute to achieving an overall development goal of the country and to improving livelihood of citizen in Quezon City, and that disparities in socio-economic status and political power among the agencies are expressed in the urban spatial restructuring. 7 This paper is composed of five chapters. In chapter 2, concepts and theories of gentrification and a basis