Preamble
WHEREAS, the government recognizes the need to rationalize the use of land particularly in urban areas to insure its optimum utilization for the welfare of the greatest number of people; WHEREAS, it is the declared policy of government to promote the well being of the people by undertaking a program of development which shall establish communities where people can live with dignity in healthful environmental conditions; WHEREAS, the Tondo Foreshore is the largest squatter and slum colony in the Greater Manila Area where people live in substandard conditions incompatible with the goals of the New Society; WHEREAS, the government is determined to improve the quality of life of the people in the Tondo Foreshore by preparing and implementing a realistic, comprehensive, and integrated plan for its development; WHEREAS, the government is aware that the land issue is central in the Tondo Foreshore Project whose resolution shall provide a meaningful and lasting solution to the situation in the project area; WHEREAS, Republic Act 1597, as amended, and other related laws specifically governing land use in the Tondo Foreshore Area have been found unrealistic and inadequate to bring about a harmonious, meaningful and lasting solution to the squatter and slums problem long obtaining in the Tondo Foreshore area; WHEREAS, the Tondo Foreshore Development Authority, and its legal successor, the National Housing Authority, have prepared a master plan for the Tondo Foreshore which provides for the upgrading of sites and services in the Tondo Foreshore and the development of Dagat-dagatan into a resettlement area with residential, commercial, and industrial components, the whole project now known as the Tondo Foreshore and Dagat-dagatan Urban Development Project; WHEREAS, there is a need to prescribe a new and reaistic land tenure system for the Tondo Foreshore area and Dagat-dagatan resettlement site in order to effect the proper implementation of the physical and socio-economic development program therein; NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution do hereby decree and order the following: