Demolishing The Poor

The State continues to use violence against urban-poor residents. This strategy poses a challenge to the Arroyo administration, if it is serious in solving the country's housing problem.

By ANANEZA ABAN

For so long now, the urban-poor residents of Barangay (village) Pineda in Pasig City have been trying to protect their homes from the government's demolition crew. One morning last month, the inevitable happened.

The Pasig River Rehabilitation Committee's demolition crew was coming in with crowbars, mallets, and sledgehammers and they were backed up by members of the Philippine National Police. The residents formed a human barricade, intent on defending their homes. People lined up tables near the community's entrance where stood a statue of the Blessed Mother. They defiantly stood behind the tables and uttered prayers and sang religious hymns to dissuade the demolition team from destroying their houses.

But the crew was unmoved and, after the ritual, they rushed at the houses while the police fired warning shots. A mêlée broke out between residents and the crew and two women were wounded while a sickly old lady died a few days later. One of the demolition crew was killed.

The violence that day could have been avoided had the postponement of the demolition requested by Pineda residents in a series of dialogues with concerned government agencies been granted. But the agencies were determined to push through with the planned Pasig River Rehabilitation Project (PRRP).

After the violence, the people and concerned nongovernment organizations protested until the government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), funder of the Pasig River project, finally gave in and stopped the demolition.

This incident, recorded in a case study prepared by Denis Murphy, executive director of the Urban Poor Associates (UPA), was just one of the many in Metro Manila and other urban-poor communities in the Philippines that seems to indicate that the State still has the predilection to use violence against the poor.

Promises, Promises

Only a few weeks after taking her oath as the 14th president of the Republic, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo went to National Government Center (NGC), the country's largest urban-poor community, in Quezon City to conduct her first ever public consultation with Metro Manila's poor.

"I came here not to grandstand or to distribute Xeroxed land titles. I am here because I want to consult with you," said Arroyo, taking a potshot at ousted president Joseph Estrada's penchant for issuing spurious land titles to urban-poor dwellers.

Before hundreds of urban poor residents, she vowed that she would issue directives stopping all demolitions in the urban centers and that she would distribute government lands for residential use.

The NGC encompasses Barangays Commonwealth, Sto. Niño, Payatas A and Batasan and is home to some 60,000 families. The land is supposedly already theirs by virtue of two proclamations under former presidents Corazon Aquino and Fidel Ramos. But the residents remain threatened by evictions, according to UPA, as the land continues to be converted for mixed use of government buildings and commercial purposes.

Norma dela Torre, a resident of NGC and president of the community organization SAMA-SAMA, said that the land should be allocated to them for their homes instead of being opened up to mixed use. "Having land for a family house is a basic human right which has priority over all other uses," dela Torre said.

A recent Malacañang memorandum signed by Victoria Garchitorena, head of the Presidential Management Staff , asks concerned government agencies to review infrastructure projects to see whether or not they complied with the requirements of the Urban Development and Housing Act. The projects to be reviewed include the C-5 and R-10 roads, the PRRP, NGC, and flood control.

Increasing Violence

A UPA demolition study-report counted 29 demolition cases affecting 6,059 families or 36,354 people in Metro Manila last year. Of these, only 3,503 families or barely 58% were relocated. But even then, the UPA study said, the government relocation sites in Montalban, Rizal, in Bulacan, and in Cavite are inadequate because they lack basic services and are very remote.

The study also found that demolitions last year were largely in pursuit of government infrastructure projects. The Department of Public Works and Highways, for instance, removed shanties built along creeks in Kalookan, Malabon, and Navotas for a flood control project. In Tondo, it removed shanties built along Radial Road 10 for a road-widening project.

The study also noted resurgence in violence with 11 violent incidents, the highest within Estrada's term. Ten of the 11 violent incidents affecting 2,850 families involved government projects.

Due to the increase in violent demolitions, UPA assistant coordinator Ted Añana suggests that President Arroyo prepare a protocol on evictions and relocations that guarantees that procedures are in accordance with national and international human rights standards.

The UPA's "Protocol on Involuntary Displacement and Resettlement" lists the following guidelines for the Philippine government to recognize:

Añana said that UPA's findings on the impact of demolitions and involuntary resettlement poses a challenge to the Arroyo administration, if it is serious in solving the country's housing problem. #