MANILA, Philippines — Furious Quezon City homeowners – and there are hundreds of thousands of them – are up in arms!

They are venting their ire on an ordinance approved by the city council October 17, and signed by the mayor last Wednesday (Manila Bulletin, October 25, 2011), taxing homeowners and lot owners a yearly “fee” for the purpose of providing housing for squatters.

What is this?

Residents who have strived for decades to acquire their real estate property are now being made to shoulder the housing needs of people who are out-of-towners, and non-taxpayers at that!

Many of the homeowners and lot owners are saying that this idiotic idea is in reverse of the mandate of democratic and socialist countries whose governments mainly provide shelter for their citizens.

Here you have this local government taxing its homeowners so it can build houses for the so-called informal settlers.

And yet, past and present Quezon City officials have been blowing their horn and beating their breast that theirs is “the richest city in the Philippines.” They claim the metropolis has an annual surplus of P6 billion.

Why, with that money the Capitol City can very well afford to build houses for all squatters in Metro Manila!

Despite the explanation by its sponsor – Edcel Lagman Jr. – homeowners can only discern of what the band of marauders led by the legendary Robin Hood did in 13th century England: Rob the rich and give the money to the poor.

Some joker in the city council is probably mesmerized by a personal delusion that he is the reincarnation of Sherwood Forest character, 21st century version!

And here is the harrowing downside of that ordinance: Expect hordes of informal settlers coming from all over Metro Manila now pitching tent Quezon City!

They will tell city hall authorities: “Dito na kami nakatira mula pang 1990!” What cut-off date they are talking about!

Many homeowners have also discovered that the operative word used in the absurd ordinance is “fee” which misleads them into believing that it is just a one-year, one-time assessment.

No, sir. The measure will bleed us, homeowners, one year after another. And what can you expect from a city council that press reports recently quoting government probers said is allegedly notorious for hiring “ghost” employees.

Bright guy, this Councilor Lagman. He is obviously not thinking of reelection in 2013.

Quezon City officials boast that their city’s coffers are bursting with cash. But have we seen a single housing project for its destitute residents financed by the city administration?

Meanwhile, a recent international event finds ominous parallelism to that ludicrous foray of the city council into the city’s home-owning residents. A TIME magazine issue of October 24, 2011, warned:

“The financially powerful are rarely held accountable for their mismanagement.”

And a BBC news interview of an Occupy Wall Street protester in New York City who said:

“Rich institutions will fail because of their greed.”

How true.