Besides herself, the security agent charged Gissea Buldigana, Joey Lopez, Inocencio Datu Jr., Danilo Reyes, Nancy Benamina, Jay-ar Goller and Salvacion Berza.
Death Threat Against Residents
Because it was a Saturday and not a workday, there was no way to process the legal documents necessary to file the charges and they all had to stay in the precinct overnight and until Monday morning when an assistant prosecutor from City Hall was able to process the papers.
“We were the ones who were threatened, the ones who were inconvenienced, but we were also the ones who were charged with violations that should have been settled at the level of village authorities,” said Bagasbas. When asked why she and the seven others did not leave the precinct, she said they did not want any legal complications to add to their problems.
Urban poor community residents hold a protest against demolitions, denounce the Aquino government’s housing program(Photo by Ina Alleco Silverio / bulatlat.com)
“We want to be able to focus on our rights to remain in San Roque and to fight the demolition; if we left the precinct, our opponents might have had another weapon against us,” she said.
Early Monday morning as they all left the precinct, Bagasbas said, one of her companions heard Abdulgar issue a threat.
“He told him that he would kill all of us first before he leaves San Roque,” she said.
A Business District to Displace Thousands
On September 23, 2010, the NHA sent a demolition team to San Roque and began dismantling the houses of residents. The residents fought back and violence ensued. No one was killed but scores of residents were hurt and bloodied. The day after, President Benigno Aquino III directed Executive Secretary Paquito N. Ochoa Jr. to put on hold the relocation of thousands of residents in the area.
The NHA and the Ayala Corporation, is eyeing San Roque to become the location of a so-called ‘Q.C Central Business District’ or QCBD, the city’s version of the Makati Business District. The QCBD is a 256-hectare project that aims to attract global investment and business interests.
Former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed the executive order no. 670 “Rationalizing and Speeding Up the Development of the East and North Triangles, and the Veterans Memorial Area of Quezon City” in May 2007, and the NHA has been at the forefront of operations to drive away the residents in the areas targeted for the business hub project.
According to business reports, the joint venture between the Ayala Land Incorporated (ALI) and the NHA has an estimated cost of P22 billion ($506 million). Ali said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange that the P22-billion budget includes future development costs and the current value of the property which ALI and the NHA will contribute as their respective equity share in the joint venture.
For their part, the group Kadamay say that over 6000 families will be rendered homeless if the project is carried out. Most of the residents are factory workers, small vendors and public utility drivers. They have been offered P1,000 to P6,000 ($23 to $138) by the NHA to demolish their own houses and move to Montalban, Rizal where the NHA has a resettlement project.
According to Kadamay’s Arellano, the residents who opted for relocation to Montalban reportedly regret their decision because the housing project there does not have electricity service and there is poor access to potable water. Plumbing is also said to be poor, and the area itself is prone to flooding.
In the meantime, the agency in charge remains determined to destroy the communities. Quite telling of its orientation is how it describes itself: though it’s a government agency. The NHA considers itself a business entity. In its website, its descriptions of how it was established is under the heading “corporate profile.”
Under EO 195 dated December 31, 1999, the NHA was ordered to focus on socialized housing supposedly through the development and implementation of a comprehensive housing development and resettlement program.
It was tasked to “fasttrack” the determination and development of government lands suitable for housing; and to “ ensure the sustainability of socialized housing funds by improving its collection efficiency, among others.”
“Whatever its declared mandate is, all we know is that the NHA is not providing good houses for the poor, but instead it’s demolishing communities for business interests,” said Bagasbas.
Defending their Humble Houses
Bagasbas, twice-widowed and a former overseas worker in Yemen, is 56 years old. She said she and her two teenaged daughters have nowhere else to go and they do not want to go to Montalban. After being elected president of the September 23 Movement which the San Roque residents formed after the brutal demolition operations last year, she has been unable to work and has instead relied on the support of neighbors and supporters.
According to her the members of the September 23 Movement are determined to put up a fight, and this is why they support her. She and other officials of the group mount continuing efforts to defend their right to live in San Roque and protect their homes.
“If the government wants us to leave, then it should first provide us with decent houses where there’s working electricity and water, and where we can find employment and income. We have been living all this time without the help of the government, but here it comes trying to drive us out of our houses, humble as they are. They say they want progress – well, we also want progress, but should progress come at the expense of the poor? What kind of progress is it that worsens the poverty of all the already neglected and oppressed?” she said. 
