MANILA, Philippines — The Quezon City government has asked informal settlers, especially those victimized by tropical storm “Ondoy” last year, to grab the opportunity of being relocated to sites offered by the city government to avail themselves of decent homes.

Tadeo Palma, secretary to Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista, said the move to transfer the informal settlers to better locations is being hampered by their lack of initiative and interest to undertake routine processes to effect their relocation.

“Most of the families identified as ‘Ondoy’ victims are not amenable to relocation moves by the government. They are not cooperative in terms of documentation, thus delaying the processing of their housing slots in National Housing Authority (NHA) relocation sites,” Palma said.

Quezon City hosts the biggest number of informal settlers in Metro Manila, the majority of them occupying highly-congested blighted areas that have been described as beyond substandard living conditions.

Aware of the urban poor’s plight, Bautista has initiated relocation weekly talks with concerned agencies.