Four children died in the
aftermath of the forced eviction of a hundred families in Quezon City earlier
this month. Illegal demolitions continue despite a Malacañang memorandum issued
last month ordering a review of all demolitions in consultation with NGOs and
urban poor groups. A recent study finds, as in this case, that the children are
the worst affected.
Five children lay in
unadorned caskets lined up in a row outside the main entrance of Old Samson
Road, a narrow street inside the Balintawak Market in Quezon City. The mood was
gloomy along the entire stretch of the road where once stood the ramshackle
houses of 100 families of market vendors and porters. It was a mournful scene
typical of the poorest of the poor in urban Metro Manila whose homes are
constantly being demolished.
The caskets rested under
makeshift tents erected a few steps away from the stench of Estero (creek)
de Sapang Kangkong, among mounds of garbage and by piles of corrugated
sheets and pieces of wood salvaged from the wreck.
Underneath each tent, a
spread of a faded black fabric with a crucifix fixed at the center and votive
lights borrowed from the memorial service parlor served as a backdrop. There was
hardly a wreath or a bouquet of flowers to cheer up the caskets. Family, friends
and neighbors sat on dilapidated fruit crates sipping coffee and playing tong-its
(a card game) to sustain the wake which lasted over a week. None among the
children’s parents could afford the burial services which cost a total of
almost P40,000.
The children were the most
recent victims of forced evictions in the metropolis. Last March 5 and 9, the
Task Force COPRISS (Control Prevention and Removal of Illegal Structures and
Squatting) of the Quezon City government demolished homes along Old Samson Road.
The shanties of the first 50 families were destroyed despite their appeal for
postponement due to the health condition of the children and the wake of one
child named Rodmart Mendez, 11 months old, who died of measles.
Prior to the demolitions,
ten children were already infected with measles. After their houses were torn
down, they were forced to stay in filthy pushcarts out in the streets even
during the night. The demolition team did not offer any temporary shelter.
Changing weather conditions
and exposure to the elements caused a relapse that led to the deaths of the four
children. The casualties were: the
three Marabot sisters Roselyn, 10 years old, Roselle, 5, and Rosalinda, 2; and
Jessica Catindoy, one year and two months.
Slowly bowing his head and
clutching his left chest firmly as if suffering from cardiac arrest, Rustico
Marabot, the father, meekly spoke between sobs, “I cannot express the depths
of my grief. But it is painful for my family to have lost three children because
of the demolition.”
Three other children are
still confined in the hospital and in critical condition. One of them is another
child of Manong (elder) Rustico. “We might lose our fourth child
who still languishes in the hospital,” he said in the local dialect.
Manong Rustico,
a porter in Balintawak market who just recovered from heart ailment, refrained
from mingling with his neighbors after the tragedy. Deeply traumatized, he chose
to stay beside his children’s caskets or sit on a neighbor’s bench, staring
blankly without talking to anybody.
The caskets of the Marabot
sisters were placed under one tent with the other two under individual tents.
“He seems less sociable
but we understand his behavior. If I were to put myself in his shoes, I would
probably be violent.” said Demetriou Marabot, Manong Rustico’s
brother and a fellow porter.
“Is it right to destroy
our homes because we are poor?” asked Manong Demetriou.
“Had the demolitions been
deferred, we could have saved our children even though we are very poor. But we
didn’t know where to place them after the demolitions because we were all left
homeless. The only shelter we had left was our pushcart,” said Linda Tapay,
the aunt of Jessica and the community’s leader.
“We already lost our
children. The tragedy that befell us is enough. We call on government to stop
all demolitions and give us land to build our homes without the fear of being
forcibly evicted once again,” Tapay said.
“We condemn the deaths and
seek justice for our dead. But our plea fell on deaf ears. We are blaming Quezon
City Mayor Ishmael Mathay who has command responsibility and he should be held
liable,” Tapay added.
“The Impact of Evictions
on Children”, a study prepared by the Urban Poor Associates (UPA), a
non-government organization (NGO) helping victims of demolitions in Metro
Manila, and the Thailand-based Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR) said
children are the most vulnerable group during demolitions.
The study was conducted in
the cities of Manila, Philippines and Mumbai and Phnom Penh in Thailand.
The study found that, eleven
years after the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child,
“evictions continue to abuse the children’s rights to adequate housing, the
right to survival and development, the right to the highest attainable standard
of health, the right to education, the right to a standard of living adequate
for the child’s physical, mental, spiritual and moral development and the
right to play.”
“Eviction implies
violence. During the event of a demolition, children are exposed to violence and
abuse. It is generally recognized that violence breeds violence. Children seeing
their families being attacked can be affected in a many ways,” the study
explained.
Violence increases the
children’s anxiety levels. As a result, some children develop a range of
phobias and fearful reactions.
Children in Manila recounted
that incidents of violence are routine after a forcible eviction. For instance,
conflicts intensify within families as parents quarrel over money or older
siblings come home drunk. Other children suffer physical abuse.
Children fear evictions
most. They become fearful and anxious for themselves and family and worry over
their future. The lack of a sense of community, the lack of play and the
constant threat of evictions are detrimental to the healthy development of a
child.
In the study, the children
asked that the government should stop destroying their houses, and that victims
of demolitions be provided compensation and adequate resettlement near schools,
hospitals and playgrounds. They expressed the hope that other children would not
experience the trauma of dislocation.
UPA and ACHR agreed that
these recommendations are reasonable and should be considered seriously by
policy makers and the government.
According to Tapay, the
demolitions along Old Samson Road were illegal. She could not recall the Quezon
City government conducting any consultation before the demolition. Nor did they
receive any demolition notice much less an offer to resettle elsewhere.
The demolition team was led
by Jack Jacutin, head of Task Force COPRISS, and backed up by members of the
Philippine National Police.
Jacutin’s team claimed it
could do a “summary eviction” of the 100 Balintawak families without any
warning, consultation and relocation since they were not in the area before
1995, the cut-off period provided for in the Urban Development and Housing Act (UDHA),
the Philippine law which guarantees citizen’s rights on housing.
But in a statement by UPA,
lawyer Joey Mendoza, the former secretary-general of the Housing and Urban
Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), the umbrella office of all housing
agencies in the country, said that many lawyers challenge Jacutin’s position.
At least a fourth of Metro Manila squatters have built their homes since 1995.
Mendoza said Jacutin’s
claim is spurious because within the three years after UDHA was passed in 1992,
the government did not effectively fulfill its duty to count beneficiaries and
identify land for social housing—prerequisites for summary evictions.
UPA has adopted Mendoza’s
position and they hold that the Balintawak eviction is illegal. Thus, those
responsible for it, including Mayor Mathay, should be punished under the law.
UPA further said, “Mathay
is the first local government official to violate in spirit the Malacañang
order on demolitions signed by Presidential Management Staff Head Victoria
Garchitorena.”
The memorandum order signed
last February 1, 2001 urged HUDCC to “review all guidelines on demolitions of
squatter colonies and relocation of informal settlers in consultation with NGOs
and urban poor groups” with the coordination of all concerned government
offices.
“It seems Mathay’s
office does not coordinate with government offices like the HUDCC,” UPA said.
Last Monday, the bereaved
parents and neighbors brought the bodies of the five children to Quezon City
Hall and laid them in the shadow of the country’s late Commonwealth president
Manuel Quezon.
They went there to seek
justice and so that the public could see the faces of the children inside the
coffins and bear witness to their tragic deaths. Desperate, they accepted coins
and bills from compassionate passers-by so that they could pay for their
children’s burial.
A priest blessed the
children and then the residents of Old Samson Road stood around the caskets and
explained the cause of the children’s death to onlookers. There was an eerie
and monotonous drum beat in the background.
A handicapped girl named
Krisanta, 11 years old and a cousin of the Marabot sisters, bent over the
coffins holding her wooden tungkod (crutch) and grieved the loss of her
playmates. “Roselyn, Roselle, why did you leave me, we still have to play,”
she cried.
The people asked for a
dialogue with Mayor Mathay but they were told that he was not in his office. Not
even the vice-mayor went down from the building to express sympathy.
Only subordinate local
officials descended from the second floor of city hall, not to give condolences
but to negotiate for a dialogue with the people. Though indignant at being
spurned by both the mayor and the vice-mayor, they eventually agreed. The
parents and leaders went upstairs.
An hour after, the Quezon
City government agreed to shoulder the burial expenses but the demolition
remained unresolved. The people decided to stay the night until Mathay ordered
his team to stop the demolition.
Sensing the people’s
determination to stay, the City’s legal officer Jose Puhawan issued a letter a
few minutes later ordering a halt to demolitions along Old Samson Road until a
consultation is done between the residents and the Quezon City government.
Everybody prepared for the
funeral. The caskets were brought
to a 10-wheeler truck to be transported to Bagbag Cemetery, a few kilometers
away from City Hall.
The funeral was very simple.
There were no more religious rites, no singing of favorite songs of the
departed, no merienda (refreshments) served—traditions that most
Filipino families follow in burying their dead. The children were finally laid
to rest in separate tombs in the same graveyard where some Payatas victims were
buried after their bodies were retrieved from an avalanche of trash.
The Payatas is a dumpsite in
the City that collapsed last year burying more than 200 scavengers.
The residents went home
still grieving. But they remained steadfast against any demolition. “No more
deaths of our children due to demolitions, we will fight for what is due for
us,” Tapay said.
Recently, in a separate
dialogue, Mayor Mathay signed Puhawan’s letter adding that “in the meantime
that we (the city government) are discussing the resettlement site, you (the
Balintawak residents) are allowed to stay as is on status quo.”
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