Post by Rawa Zalkha

"We are no longer squatters." That's how one member of the Sitapra Panaghiusa Homeowners Association (SPHOA) describes what years of work and advocacy finally won them. After years of demolition threats in Cebu City, these families were relocated to a forested hillside "with no water, no electricity, no houses". In the absence of state provision, residents sourced materials, built shelter, and organised the infrastructure of daily life through their own labour and collective effort. In this short documentary that I directed with Jacqueline Holo, SPHOA's officers narrate that process and the conditions that remain unresolved. The documentary came out of a research report we produced in collaboration with FORGE — a Cebu-based NGO that's spent nearly four decades organising alongside the city's urban poor — as part of the Overseas Practice Engagement at The Bartlett Development Planning Unit, UCL. Working with SPHOA members and officers, we traced their resettlement journey to understand why the conditions for a just resettlement remain unmet, and where the openings for change lie. This work wouldn't have existed without FORGE and the SPHOA officers who shared their time, stories, and their homes with us. Thank you to our group members Silvia Allan, Charlotte Caldwell, Andrea Poletti, Wei-chung Chen, Wanfeng Chen, Jacqueline Holo, Avery Hu, Fardeen C., Yuchen Xue, and Xi Chen for the effort and hardwork. And to our tutors at the DPU, Jordana Ramalho, Azadeh Mashayekhi, Tim Wickson, and Giorgia Giagnotti, for guiding us throughout.

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