“We are expecting that these attacks against the welfare of the urban poor would continue this 2014. But we will continue to push and fight for our rights, for our livelihood and for decent pay.”
“First they tried to get rid of the Philippine Children’s Medical Center. Now they want to get rid of plants and trees. What is next? Pushing for the transfer of government offices like the Philippine Science High School and the Office of the Ombudsman to make way for even more commercial expansion?” – Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate
“Aquino promised to provide us with decent shelter using billions of pesos from the Informal Settler Fund (ISF), but only provided us with far-flung relocation sites that lack basic social services and employment opportunities.” – residents
The real disaster in our country is neither the flood-inducing typhoons that sink our cities under murky waters nor the earthquakes that crumble our homes. In the end, the real disaster here is the poverty that ruins lives.
“The houses look good. But we do not have livelihood there. We have electricity and water but we do not have money to pay our bills.” – Purita Dayao
Part Two: From danger zones to a death zone
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
The demolition team, accompanied by a large police contingent, arrived without any prior notice to preempt the preparations of the community to resist the demolition of their homes.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
In 2011, rights group Karapatan – National Capital Region has monitored at least one case of demolition a month, which more or less translates to at least three families losing their homes everyday due to demolition.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO Bulatlat.com MANILA — Urban poor residents living along BIR road in Quezon City remain vigilant after a recent demolition threat in their community. “We were informed that a demolition team would arrive in our community (last Nov. 28) to demolish the so-called illegal structures. But what surprised us was the…
Video: Demolisyon
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO Bulatlat.com MANILA — Urban poor groups trooped to the government housing agency to protest the massive demolition of homes in North and East Triangle areas to give way to the Quezon City Central Business District project. In a statement, Alyansa Kontra Demolition, an alliance of urban poor groups, said their…
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
“Real development must be based on social justice. It cannot be achieved by forcibly evicting and throwing us to the countryside and to remote places without decisively resolving the roots of our poverty and oppression.”