Squatting in the Philippines occurred after World War II when people built makeshift houses called "barong-barong". Urban areas such as Metro Manila and Metro Davao have large informal settlements. The Philippine Statistics Authority has defined a squatter, or alternatively "informal dwellers", as "One who settles on the land of another without title or right or without the owner's consent whether in urban or rural areas". President Ferdinand Marcos criminalized squatting in 1975 with a decree that was annulled in 1997. Squatting is now criminalized by the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992 (RA 7279), also known as the Lina Law. There have been various attempts to regularize squatter settlements, such as the Zonal Improvement Program and the Community Mortgage Program.