ADVERTISEMENT
Thirty families were told to vacate the land where they have lived for decades to give way to the 576-hectare reclamation project of San Miguel Corporation.
It's as if the greed and neglect piled upon more greed and neglect has turned into something thick and viscid, and like mud threatens to harden into something more permanent. I can only hope that that something is awakening, and not despair.
Under existing policies and government priorities, there seems to be no safe place for displaced poor of Metro Manila. They have been deprived of the right to city, to adequate housing, and to decent life. Typhoon Ulysses (international name: Vamco) has again brought to the fore the government’s criminal neglect.
After surviving yet another raging flood that took away their home and belongings, Kasiglahan residents are at a loss as to how to start again.
While middle class citizens in the Metro have started tending to plants as a way to cope with their isolation, urban poor communities, with no option to work from home, collectively cultivated gardens to put food on their tables.
"We know that we, residents of Sitio Silangan ... have a right to the lands that we cultivated.”
At a time when Filipino families are being told to stay at home, urban poor families in Intramuros said they have not received any relocation program at all. Residents also lamented that the Manila police has been assisting the private company in carrying out the demolition.
Carlito Badion, known for his indubitable courage, was an effective urban poor leader because he knew poverty like the palm of his hand.
With the Philippine government set to provide the next wave of aid for pandemic-hit Filipinos, residents of urban poor community Payatas in Quezon City said they received none since March.
“They are not disobedient, they are just striving to survive.”
The situation in jail, according to transport group Piston, "gave the jeepney drivers higher risks of contracting the coronavirus disease."
"Badion championed the cause of the homeless and the informally settled. He was instrumental in Kadamay's housing occupation campaigns and community barricades against demolition."
Most of us may be afraid and cautious of this invisible virus possibly lurking in our vicinity. But for the economically vulnerable, it is the untrustworthy authorities that they are most afraid of during this quarantine. With Duterte’s order to shoot anyone who does not obey, the police were given even more power to assert their authority over the vendors and homeless.
“Government is contented with the limited food aid that they have given us, without even thinking that it would only last for a day or two, what would happen after that? And then there are the other needs of our family like medicine, where would we get that?”
Even during a calamity or health emergency, Bishop Reuel Marigza, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, said that compassion and human dignity should be at the heart of government officials carrying out relief operations.
"They threatened to stop our community kitchen if we will continue with the protests and placards. Will these police officers feed us?"
"i’m really sorry i don’t normally put that stuff out here but nanginginig ako sa galit and they need to be set free and the faster we can get this done the better."
"The people are getting hungry. The answer to their fervent wish is simple. And yet they were violently dispersed and arrested all because this gathering is prohibited?"
Most of the breadwinners in their village earn a living either as construction workers or market vendors.
Wawa 1 is one of the “Direct Impact Areas” affected by Bacoor’s “Green and Blue Network” reclamation program, which will cover a 320-hectare space aimed at “attract[ing] economic development” in the city. Specifically, Wawa 1 is the proposed site of a “river walk” which will threaten to displace the residents in the area.
A community of readers and supporters that help us sustain our operations through microdonations for as low as $1.