Fire leaves 5,000 homeless

A huge night fire sent slum dwellers running for their lives and destroyed more than a thousand homes in Davao City.

The city’s skyline lit up as firefighters battled for more than five hours against flames that leapt swiftly from one shanty to another in the depressed coastal neighborhood of Isla Verde in Barangay 23-C (village 23-C) on Friday (April 4, 2014) night.

As the fire continued to blaze for hours, hundreds of houses were also burned in the neighboring villages of 21-C and 22-C.

“I’m back to zero. I don’t know how I can recover,” said grocer Norayna Serad, who lost her store and merchandise worth P100,000 that she had paid for with three years’ worth of savings from working abroad.

“Maybe I will need to go back to Kuwait and work as a maid again,” the 28-year-old said as she clutched a half-burnt Koran beside the ruins of her shop.

The blaze was put under control shortly after 1 a.m. on Saturday, but by then, about 5,000 people were left homeless, local civil defense officials said.

Children scavenged for twisted metal and corrugated iron sheets among the ruins to sell for scrap.

“These were houses made of light materials. They were all razed,” said Jimmy Martinez, an official of the civil defense office for the Davao region.

Some of the houses had rested on stilts that stuck out of the coastal waters, and firefighters said they had difficulty moving through the narrow, winding alleyways between the shanties, he said. More than a thousand families sought refuge at a government schoolhouse that escaped the blaze.

Martinez added that the slum sat on a previously vacant government lot that had been gradually settled by impoverished migrants to the city of 1.5 million people.

The blaze apparently started when an untended candle in one of the houses tipped over in the early evening, Davao fire investigator Ramil Gillado said.

A fisherman’s wife, Gina Salapuddin, watched her husband mark out with string the place where their shanty had stood, as the couple began planning for rebuilding even though they had lost practically all their possessions.

“God will provide,” the 32-year-old woman said.

The affected residents are staying in several evacuation centers in the city. The Bureau of Fire Protection is still determining the total cost of damage left by the incident.

Full report: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/592252/2-fires-leave-5000-homeless-raze-govt-offices

Cardinal Tagle laments poverty amid progress

MANILA Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle has expressed alarm over the rising unemployment and worsening poverty in the country despite the highly touted economic growth rates.

Tagle said that while the government should be commended for the robust economic growth the country had been experiencing, many Filipinos continued to be poor and jobless.

The prelate noted the paradox in an interview last week with Tele Care, a New York-based Catholic television network in the “Everyday Faith Live” program, where he also discussed the imbalances in the Philippine economy.

The cardinal flew to the United States last week to receive an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Fordham University.

“We have to salute our government and also the business sector. However, we were alarmed to see also that the level of poverty has not gone down,” Tagle was quoted as saying in the CBCP News, the official news service of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.

He said it was “worth rejoicing” that the Philippines registered the highest gross domestic product growth rate in Southeast Asia last year.

“So you ask the question where is this growth going? How come there is this very accelerated growth economically, but ordinary people remained poor?” he said.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) recently reported an increase in unemployment among Filipinos despite economic growth in 2013 exceeding the targets.

The PSA said that in January, the unemployment rate climbed to 7.5 percent from last year’s 7.1 percent, the second-fastest in Asia next to China’s 7.7 percent.

Source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/591400/cardinal-tagle-laments-poverty-amid-progress

Catholics put robots through their paces

Filipino Catholic youths joined over 600 young scientists from about 20 countries for this year’s World Robot Olympiad, an annual competition to showcase robotic systems.

“It is really hard but we really don’t mind because we wanted to prove that we can do it, said Alexandra Guevarra from the province of Bulacan, north of Manila.

Guevarra and her team grabbed the top prize in the junior high school open category of the competition.

© Full report at ucanews.com

Filipinos snub Caritas flood aid appeal

A week after appealing for aid for Pakistan flood victims, Caritas Filipinas is yet to receive donations from Philippine dioceses, says a Caritas official.

“We need to strategize how to drum up appeal,” said Father Edwin Gariguez, executive secretary of the bishop’s conference’s social action secretariat that administers Caritas Filipinas.

Filipinos seem unaware of what is going on in Pakistan, he said. “There’s not much media exposure.”

© Full report at ucanews.com

Inhumanity

Commentary : Inhumanity

By Denis Murphy
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Posted date: March 08, 2010

THE poor woman seen clutching her Santo Niño and weeping bitterly on the front page of the March 5 Inquirer is Angelita Villaruel. Two weeks earlier I praised her courage and that of the other women of Navotas who resisted efforts of the Navotas police to shove aside their human barricade and demolish their houses. The women were water-cannoned and knocked down; they climbed to their feet and were knocked down again; they were clubbed by the police, but still they resisted. For two more weeks they resisted with the help of Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez, Fathers Allan Lopez and Robert Reyes and the lawyer and staff of Urban Poor Associates, CO Multiversity and COPE. Finally, on March 4, they were overwhelmed and their homes destroyed: 100 shanties were knocked down and 243 families (1,200 men, women and mostly children) were left homeless.

The demolition was illegal and all the government officials involved, from the highest in the DPWH down to the demolition crew, knew that, because there was no relocation. The officials’ justifications for the action seem right out of the half-mad, half-wacky world of “Alice in Wonderland.” The mayor of Navotas says he issued the Certificate of Compliance (COC) needed for a demolition because the DPWH told him it had a relocation spot, even when it hadn’t one. The

DPWH then turned around and said they had to demolish the homes because the mayor had ordered them to do so in the COC.

The people now sleep in the rubble. There is nowhere else to go. They ate together the night of the eviction, red eggs and noodles and rice from the parish. Children play on the back hoe and women cry quietly. Two weeks ago the women asked, “How can they beat us? We’re old enough to be their grandmothers?” They now ask, “How can they leave us homeless with our children?”

The day before the eviction the women and their supporters met with government officials at the National Housing Authority. No solution was reached, but at the end of a long, often heated discussion, the government promised to send its people from various agencies to the site the next morning (March 5) to do what was possible to stop the eviction and mitigate the suffering of the poor. The government people were not there when the eviction started the next morning. One or two came later, but were of little help.

Maybe because evictions are so common and the lives of the poor so alien to the better-off members of society, we have forgotten how huge a tragedy evictions are. It is traumatic for children to see men tear down their homes and to see their mothers knocked to the ground by water cannons. Studies show it ordinarily takes five years for a family to recover economically from a demolition. Women grieve as they see the homes, where they had their children, torn down as if they were junk. The men lose work days; there is more sickness requiring medicine. Distant relocation often means the loss of a job or separation from one’s family for long periods of time. They borrow money to see them through the hard times that is hard to repay. Poor women as well as well-off women feel their house is an extension of themselves—as a man feels his professional work is part of himself—so to see their houses torn down is extremely painful.

In the aftermath of “Ondoy” the government talked of the need to evict huge numbers of poor people from waterways, including the Manggahan Floodway and Lupang Arienda. The number of people affected could be between half a million and one million. Is the wider society prepared to allow the poor to suffer on such a scale? In-city and near-city relocation are far less painful than distant relocation. Can we make them the rule? There is sufficient time left to examine every community, big or small, to determine exactly which ones have to move and where it is best to move them. Surely not all the 200,000 families nominated for relocation need to be sent to far-off resettlement camps from which 35 percent to 40 percent will return, as has been the norm in the past.

The urban poor will most likely vote for candidates such as Noynoy Aquino and Mar Roxas, I’m told, who have promised the poor to end illegal forced evictions. Demolitions and the fear of demolitions poison urban poor life. On the other hand, a government that treats its poor decently with a sense of dignity, respect for law and the humanity ordered by the Constitution, will have very devoted followers. The first rule of government, as of doctors, should be “do no harm.” Other considerations can come later.

Denis Murphy works with the Urban Poor Associates. His email address is upa@pldtdsl.net.

©Copyright 2001-2010 INQUIRER.net, An Inquirer Company

http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20100308-257276/Inhumanity

Best and worst of government

Commentary : Best and worst of government

By Denis Murphy
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Posted date: February 18, 2010

EVERY DAY IN METRO MANILA WE HAVE numerous examples of the best and worst practices of government. In Navotas, young policemen beat up poor women old enough to be their grandmothers. The women wouldn’t disperse from a barricade they had formed to protect their homes against actions of the Department of Public Works and Highways which they believed were illegal. Lawyers and other government offices agree with the women.

Meanwhile in Baseco, Manila Mayor Fred Lim and Barangay Chair Cristo Hispano have agreed to resettle 300 fire victim families in the most humane and efficient way possible.

Cora Geducos, 61, was one of the women beaten by police in Navotas along the R-10 road that runs along Manila Bay. “He held his shield against my face,” she said of the young policeman who clubbed her, “then he bent down and hit my legs and feet with his club.” She showed me her bandaged toe and the lesions on her arms. “I didn’t think they would do that to us. We were just protecting our homes and our rights as human beings. I feel very sad about what happened. It hurts to think they would do that to old women like myself.”

Sixteen other women showed their wounds, including Angelita Villaruel, Virginia Cantellas, Daisy Jalbuena and Emma Villaruel. Few wanted to give their ages.

Fr. Robert Reyes had led a prayer service in the street at which the men and women of the barricade laughed and cried, hugged one another, listened to the Scripture, prayed and sang “Ama Namin,” which has become the anthem of the oppressed ever since it was sung in the giant rallies that supported Cory Aquino before and after the snap election of 1986.

The women were also water cannoned from a distance of a few feet. The use of water cannons is illegal in such evictions. Water cannons on women!

Usually after big fires the government takes steps to keep the poor from returning to the land they occupied, because it believes it has better use for the land. The fire victims must look for land elsewhere. Mayor Lim, the barangay captain, the local people’s organization, Kabalikat and architects from the Mapua School of Architecture have agreed on something more useful.

They, too, will not allow people to return to the land they occupied, but only until the land has been surveyed and subdivided into lots, and then they can return. The new settlement will have straight roads for ambulance and fire engine access. Access is the biggest problem in most slum fires. The recent fire spread because fire trucks couldn’t get near it.

Second, the mayor and others will ask the Mapua School of Architecture to survey and plan the settlement in consultation with the people.

Third, the restructured area will be the model for the other 6,000 families living in barong-barongs in Baseco. Because the soil is very “risky” and liable to liquefaction in case of an earthquake, houses will be limited to one story. The people involved will work with neighborhood groups, including Muslim organizations and Fr. Cris Sabili and the St. Hannibal Empowerment Center (SHEC).

The fire area has been bulldozed, and now looks like an ancient battle field excavated after the ages. Individual men and women wander about on it, lost in their thoughts. The setting sun sends long shadows of playing children across the scorched ground. The people are content as they line up for relief goods; they don’t have to worry about relocation. That is, all the people except the parents of a little girl who died in the fire.

In Navotas the people live on land designated for the widening of R-10. They agree to move and they qualify in every way for the relocation ordered in the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992. If they receive their relocation allowance, they will move.

The DPWH says it asked the National Housing Authority and other agencies to provide resettlement. When they couldn’t do so, the

DPWH claimed it had done all that was required and went ahead in another questionable way to plan the eviction. Instead of a home, it offered P21,000 to families to move, an alternative not mentioned in the law.

There is a greater willingness now even among the most influential government agencies to ignore the housing and resettlement laws. The government can deal kindly or cruelly with the poor, but there are serious consequences in this life and the next.

Denis Murphy works with the Urban Poor Associates. His email address is upa@pldtdsl.net.

©Copyright 2001-2010 INQUIRER.net, An Inquirer Company

http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20100218-253978/Best-and-worst-of-government

Urban Poor Reenact Joseph and Mary’s Search for Shelter

** NEWS RELEASE *** NEWS RELEASE *** NEWS RELEASE **

Urban Poor Reenact Joseph and Mary’s Search for Shelter

Manila, 15 December 2009 (Tuesday). Over two thousand urban poor people will march along the streets of Manila today repeating the question asked by Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem: "Do you have a decent place where we can stay?"

Led by Joseph, Mary and the three Kings, urban poor people in costumes will march from Gomburza Plaza in front of the old Senate Building along Padre Burgos Avenue to Manila Cathedral carrying lanterns, belen, stars and other Christmas symbols.

Participants include children, old people, victims of demolitions, scavengers, relocated railroad families, people’s organizations, various non-government organizations, friends and supporters.

The theme of this year’s Panunuluyan of the urban poor is “Umaasa at kumikilos tungo sa isang masagana at mapayapang lungsod”.

The Panunuluyan is sponsored by members of Task Force Anti-Eviction composed of non-government organizations such as Urban Poor Associates (UPA), Community Organizers Multiversity (COM), Community Organization of the Philippine Enterprise (COPE), with the help of various NGOs and people’s organizations.

“The urban poor’s problem is homelessness. We realized that at Christmastime, homelessness was also the problem of Joseph, Mary and Jesus. So we tried to connect those two. We were not the first one who thought of that because there is the old custom of Panunuluyan in the villages (barrios). So we decided to reenact the old tradition of Joseph and Mary going from place to place looking for a place to settle in and where Mary can have a baby with the modern problem of homelessness of the people,” said Denis Murphy, Executive Director of UPA.

“We’ve done that every year since 1987, twenty two years. And I think over those years we’ve educated the poor people to understand that God understands what it is to be homeless after the experience in Bethlehem. And I hope we have educated the powers that be that they understand also in a small way that to leave the urban poor homeless or to make them homeless even worse is to render God homeless as the powers that be did in Bethlehem,” Murphy added.

This year urban poor people will have a drama. They will have the reenactment of the search of Mary and Joseph for a place to live. And then they will go into the church for Mass with Bishop Broderick Pabillo at 9:30 AM. After the mass, people will have contests – singing contest, carol contest, belen contest, dancing contest, costume contest; and lunch.

During the mass they will give some awards. One award is for the Urban Poor Person of the Year. This is for Myrna Porcare of North Fairview, Quezon City who was shot by security guards when she was trying to defend the homes of her fellow urban poor people.

They are also giving awards to the following: Congressman Leonardo Montemayor, Aba-Ako Party-list representative, for introducing House Bill 6675, the Omnibus Amendment Bill for Urban Development and Housing Act (UDHA) to protect the housing rights of the poor; Lawyer Jose Midas Marquez for his work reconciling the Supreme Court decision to clean up Manila Bay with the need to relocate the poor and give them adequate notice and consultation; Father Anton Pascual and Radyo Veritas for their unflagging advocacy on radio for the issues and concerns of the poor; And former Senator Joey Lina for his authorship of UDHA (R.A. 7279) that guarantees the right of the urban poor to adequate housing.

They are also giving a citation to a poor woman, Cirila Bulagner, in the name of all the members of Coalition of Services of the Elderly (COSE), an elderly people’s organization, for her years of service to the elderly in providing home care and teaching others how to help the elderly.

According to UPA, there are thousands of homeless families in Metro Manila mainly because of forced evictions, illegal demolitions, lack of access to affordable housing and public services, labor contractualization, high cost of living, globalization, commercialism, displacements due to armed conflicts, rural to urban migration, graft and corruption, urban poverty aggravated by greed, selfishness and indifference. -30-

MEDIA ADVISORY - Panunuluyan ng Maralitang Tagalungsod 2009

Attention: News Editor, News Desk, Reporters and Photojournalists

MEDIA ADVISORY

Panunuluyan ng Maralitang Tagalungsod 2009

We are having our annual Panunuluyan of the Urban Poor again on the morning of December 15, 2009 (Tuesday) from 8:00AM to 1:00PM.

Panunuluyan recreates the search of Joseph and Mary for a shelter where their child Jesus might be born. We see this event in the light of the urban poor people’s search for homes, peace and a decent life.

Beginning at 8:00 AM, about 2,000 urban poor people will march from GOMBURZA Plaza (opposite Old Senate Bldg.) to Manila Cathedral.

There will be a mass led by Bishop Broderick Pabillo of Manila at 9:30 AM. During the mass, the Urban Poor Person of the Year Award will be given to the person who in the judgment of the poor has done the most for them. There will be a Christmas carol, games for the children, choir, parol, best in costume and belen-making contests and a lot more. Please join us and bring your friends.

Photo ops: Drama at Bethlehem – Modern reenactment of the search of Joseph and Mary for a room in the inn.

Date: December 15, 2009 (Tuesday)
Assembly point: GOMBURZA Plaza, Padre Burgos Street (8:00 AM)
Mass with Bishop Broderick Pabillo: Manila Cathedral (9:30 AM)

Panunuluyan ng Maralitang Tagalungsod 2009

Dear Friends,

Greetings from all of us and the urban poor people we work with.

We are having our annual Panunuluyan of the Urban Poor again this year. It will take place on the morning of December 15, 2009 (Tuesday) from 8:00AM to 1:00PM at the Manila Cathedral.

As you know the Panunuluyan recreates the search of Joseph and Mary for a shelter where their child Jesus might be born. We see this event in the light of the urban poor people’s search for homes, peace and a decent life.

Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng not only brought great suffering upon the urban poor, as upon other sectors of society, but also revealed that there exists throughout society the belief that the poor are the cause of the floods. It is hard to remove such a belief by words alone, no matter how many times scientists tell us the poor were minor causes at most of the floods.

We believe it will help all people if we can spend a morning together.

Following the stars, about 2,000 to 3,000 urban poor people will march from GOMBURZA Plaza (opposite Old Senate Bldg. along Padre Burgos Street) to Manila Cathedral. The marchers will also include the Blessed Mother and Joseph.

Urban poor actors and actresses will perform the Nativity story in front of the Cathedral.

We will all attend mass led by Bishop Broderick Pabillo of Manila, then pay attention to the songs, dances, skits and stories of the young, middle aged and very old poor people.

During the mass, the Urban Poor Person of the Year Award will be given to the person who in the judgment of the poor has done the most for them. Some recognition will also be given to friends of the urban poor.

The morning will end with a joint Act of Hope — poor and well-off together — in the Philippines and Philippine society.

There will be a Christmas carol, games for the children, choir, parol, best in costume and belen-making contests and a lot more.

We will provide a good lunch for everyone and a never-ending supply of ice cream for the kids. Participants include children, old people, victims of demolitions, scavengers, relocated families, leaders of people’s organization, urban poor friends and NGOs from all over Metro Manila.

Please join us and bring your friends.

See you on December 15.

WHO CAUSED THE FLOOD

SHELTER FROM HARM A girl whiles away the hours playing in front of her house in Bagong Silangan, Q.C. on Oct. 4.




WHO CAUSED THE FLOOD

Typhoon Ondoy no sooner began to subside than government once again blamed the poor families - - estimated to number about 80,000 families (400,000 men, women and mostly children) - - for the unprecedented flooding.

The government has prohibited these poor families from returning to their homes from the evacuation centers. Housing officials talk publicly about evicting all 80,000 families and relocating them outside the city, far from jobs and basic services.

These government actions are based on the belief that the poor caused the floods by blocking the esteros and rivers. Luckily there were other explanations for the flooding. Architects, geologists and urban planners reminded us that the causes of the floods were much more complex. Cabinet and city officials connived with developers to violate sensible planning rules. Others logged and quarried in the mountains around Metro Manila. Climate change played a role. Guilty, too, are those city officials who ignored the instructions of the Urban Development and Housing Act (UDHA) of 1992 that each city should set aside land for social housing. If that had been done 17 years ago, there would be fewer families on the rivers and esteros.

The poor are partially to blame, but there is a huge difference between the poor, the officials and developers. The latter violate the law for gain, motivated by greed. The poor live on the shabby waterways because they have too. They are there to survive and would gladly move to a relocation center in the city where they could get back and forth to their jobs. They are not necessarily opposed to relocation but to evictions and relocation that are inhuman and violate the Constitution, the country’s international covenants and laws.

We ask for two things. First, let government establish an independent board of inquiry to look into the basic causes of the flooding. We will then know who the main violators of the common good are. The study can examine also the possibilities of in-city relocation for the poor on the waterways.

Secondly, we ask government not to evict poor people until we have an explanation of what really went wrong and fully prepared and discussed plans.

The urban poor will resist evictions and relocation that violate the law and further impoverish them.

If government will not make such an inquiry, the urban poor will do so to the best of their ability.

Do not make the poor the scapegoat for the greed of the wealthy and powerful. We see poor people walking the streets looking for rice for their families. Don’t add to their suffering.

The urban poor extend their compassion to all who suffered in Ondoy, especially to the families of those who died trying to help others. May God take care of all of us.

Typhoon Ondoy and floods - Analysis with Winnie Monsod

10/02/2009 | 10:54 PM

‘Running Priest’ Goes on Fasting to Save the Grand Mosque

** NEWS RELEASE *** NEWS RELEASE *** NEWS RELEASE **

‘Running Priest’ Goes on Fasting to Save the Grand Mosque

19 September 2009. Activist priest Father Robert Reyes went on fasting this morning with the Muslims living near the Grand Mosque to mark the end of Ramadan and to signify their opposition to the government’s plan to demolish the mosque located in Pasay City. The demolition will give way for the implementation of the Southwest Public Transport Intermodal Project. The said area is also reportedly being developed for commercial establishments, including casinos.

In a statement, Reyes said he is one with the Muslim community in their fight to save the mosque. He said the mosque has been there for a long time and is already a holy landmark for our Muslim brothers and sisters.

Through the said fast, Reyes is asking the government to heed the call of the people not to relocate the mosque. “Let it stay together with our churches so that it may be seen as a symbol of Muslim and Christian understanding in our country,” said the Cubao Diocese-based Catholic priest.

Ramadan is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking, and indulging in anything that is in excess or ill-natured; from dawn until dusk.

Reyes was joined by Task Force Anti-Eviction group composed of various people’s organizations and NGOs such as Urban Poor Associates (UPA), Community Organizers Multiversity (COM) and Community Organization of the Philippine Enterprise (COPE) Foundation who have been supporting the Muslim group in fighting for their sacred place.

“We must remember that there are things beyond and greater than law. Christ even said do not follow the letter of the law without understanding its spirit. Therefore, whatever projects the government has for this land where the mosque is built, spare it from demolition in this way the government can prove its sincerity promoting peace and equality in our country,” Reyes said.

“Our society needs to deepen our acceptance, our respect and appreciation of other religions, especially the very old religion of Islam,” Reyes added.

On the other hand, Abdelmanan Tanandato, leader of Samahan ng Nagkakaisang Nademolis sa Roxas Boulevard, said their group is very happy with the support given by the Catholic church and different NGOs. “Their respect towards our culture, rights, and religious beliefs strengthened our hope that we will be able to come up with an amicable solution to this problem,” Tanantado said.

Currently, the group of Tanandato has filed a motion to quash/ hold in abeyance the writ of execution immediately after Sheriff Jeffrey Sales served a notice to vacate on Aug 13, 2009 from Parañaque Regional Trial Court (RTC) branch 274.

Tanandato has high-hopes that the court will be favorable to them this time due to the growing support coming from the Catholic Church and from local and international NGOs.

For his part, Jun Alferez, UPA community organizer, said there is a total of 3,295 families evicted this year alone as a result of the government’s supposed “beautification” projects. -30-

A Prophet for the Philippines

A Prophet for the Philippines

by Denis Murphy

[This story hasn't happened yet, although we tell it in the past tense. It may happen any day now, so look out. Forewarned is forearmed. You will hear thunder rumbling.]

The old archbishop walked up and down beside his cathedral as he did every night after dinner. He said his rosary as he walked and was so deep in thought a person would have to bump into him before the archbishop would notice.

An even older man suddenly appeared beside him, seemingly out of nowhere. The man was dressed in the white suit, brown and white shoes and panama hat that gentlemen wore in the 1940s.

"You look terrible, excellency," the man said.

The archbishop knew him. "It could be worse, my friend."

"Is it the poor again?"

"My people just don't care about them."

"We know and we are going to give them one final chance. Remember that favor you kept asking us for?"

"The prophet?"

"We had a hard time finding him, but now we have him. We've chosen you."

"Me? I'm no prophet."

"That's what they always said, isn't it? Don't argue. You are God's prophet for this stiff-necked Filipino people. You are their Amos, Jeremiah, John the Baptist. It's decided."

"Wait a minute. What do I say to them?"

"It's up to you. We don't have any idea. Nothing seems to work with your people, especially those well-off people of yours. Good luck, excellency. You'll need it." The man disappeared in a single whoosh of air.

The archbishop-prophet wondered how he would approach his people. They like statistics and theory. They like serious discussions, but after such talk nothing happens. He was fond of quoting United Nations figures that claimed over 300 Filipino children died each day of malnutrition-related diseases. The children simply didn't have enough food. His audience shook their heads in horror when they heard his sad tale, but when they left the church all was forgotten. Calm, informed discussion wouldn't do it.

He thought for some more time and then decided: if I am a prophet, I'll act like one. A few days later, dressed in ragged pants, rubber slippers and a faded T-shirt advertising soap powder, with his face and arms smeared with dirt, he pushed a kariton to the middle of a bridge over an estero. People living under the bridge had been evicted. When word got around that the scavenger was the archbishop, the crowds gathered.

"The Lord God Almighty says: ‘Once upon a time 57 families lived in darkness under this bridge. Now it's empty. Where have you put my children? Where are my children? Where are the old people? Where is the old blind woman who lived here?' The Lord God says to you: ‘Because you drove them out and threw them in the streets like garbage, and left them homeless in the rain, I will punish this city. Shame on those who ordered the demolition. Shame on all of you who stood by and did nothing. Shame on you police who could have stopped it. Shame, too, on my priests who failed to struggle to stop it.'"

The Archbishop finished and as he pushed his kariton away from the bridge the crowd fell back to let him pass. "Thank you, excellency," an older woman said, but most everyone else was silent. Few looked the archbishop in the eye as he passed. Instead, they worried about him.

The headline in the leading newspaper the next morning was guarded: "Archbishop's Bridge Talk Puzzles Listeners." People calling in to the radio stations worried about the "appropriateness" of the action, or felt his dress and the kariton were "troubling". They noted the archbishop had completely departed from his usual low key manner of speaking. "He sounds so hostile now," a listener to Radio Veritas's Caritas at Maralita said. "I don't think I like him this way."

The archbishop understood the reaction was bad. It didn't do any good to threaten his people.

He was a prophet till he died, so he couldn't stop. He would try another approach, and so on TV the following Sunday night he wore a simple gray clerical shirt with a small wooden cross hanging around his neck. He asked the camera to zoom in close. He wanted to speak in the soft tones he used when talking to his priests who had problems or to old people close to death. It was indeed a soft tone, but thunder rumbled in the background of his words. The close-up would also, though the archbishop didn't realize it, show the kindness and sadness in his eyes.

He talked about two little squatter boys he had passed near a hospital. They were 4 or 5 years old and were sitting on a rubber mat eating cheese curls. Not far away were the kariton where their families lived. When it rained the families pulled blue plastic sheets over themselves and their kariton and settled down low like carabaos in the rain. "The boys talked and shared the bag of cheese curls, passing it back and forth. I waved to them and they waved back. I felt so sad. What will happen to the boys? Will their lives be full of pain and frustration? Then I realized, those two boys were there by the road because God intended us to see them. God is saying to us, ‘you are responsible for them'. Yes, we are also responsible for the mothers nearby building their small wood fires to cook rice, and for all the weak and poor of our city. As God gives these children to us, He also gives Himself. If we refuse them, we refuse Him.

He stopped there and stared into the camera. He prayed his people would take this last chance that God was giving them to amend their ways. He was afraid to think of what would happen otherwise. He heard thunder rumbling.

###

Denis Murphy works with the Urban Poor Associates. His email address is upa@pldtdsl.net.


http://www.thepoc.net/index.php/Parokya-Sa-Web/Tinig-ng-Maralita/A-Prophet-for-the-Philippines.html

Civil Society Organization’s Perspective on the Philippine Urban Poor Situation

This document is publicly viewable at: http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhhqg4t6_186d2pm2qfw

A case study of the Metro Manila railway project in the Philippines (by Narae Choi)

MPhil.Thesis_Narae.Choi -

This thesis was submitted for the Degree of Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) in Development Studies at the University of Oxford. Since it has yet to be published, I recommend strongly that you contact Narae Choi at nal_go@hanmail.net before citing it.

Calcutta, Dhaka and the Poor

Calcutta, Dhaka and the Poor

by Denis Murphy
Saturday, 02 May 2009

There have been huge changes in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) and Dhaka, though the symbols of poverty remain: the rickshaws, pavement people, forlorn beggars and vast stretches of slums.

In Dhaka I came upon an old woman and a baby squatting by the side of the path. The woman was bent over the baby and had it wrapped in her faded red sari. They looked inconsequential, the two of them, like a bag of old leaves you could pick up and walk off with easily. There was no tin cup for begging, and they weren't there the next day. I watched a line of rickshaw drivers pass by. In Dhaka the rickshaw is pulled by bicycle power. The drivers were all small, dark and looked as if they had just been condemned to death. They work on average 12 hours a day in traffic so chaotic it makes Manila's look genteel.

In Howrah, Calcutta's sister city, we met a group of outcaste people-scavengers, sweepers, garbage men-who live near a giant garbage dump. We talked about their eviction: the High Court had ordered the outcastes be removed because of the pollution caused by the dump. About a hundred men stood around us talking while clouds of flies landed on their hands and faces. No one moved to brush away the flies, even from the faces of the babies that some of the men held.

The danger for visitors in seeing such poverty is that we may believe we are dealing with people who are somehow less than human, who only think of food and have no hope in life, or pride in their culture and history. We may believe they are unable to work in organized ways to change their situation, and that they have no sense of justice and human dignity. I was lucky enough in Calcutta and Dhaka to have friends who allowed me to understand a little more about these poor men and women.

In Dhaka I was able to talk to six Bengali Muslim women working with an NGO called Shelter for the Poor. They were organizing the slumdwellers of Dhaka to get land tenure security for their families. According to the United Nations' Habitat such security of tenure or freedom from eviction is a necessary pre-condition for urban development. The women said other NGOs offered water, light and health programs which were good, but if there were evictions, they would lose all those good things. "Land, land," they said, "that's what we need."

All six had taken part in protests against evictions. In one protest rally 100,000 persons employed a Mahatma Gandhi-like method by sitting down in one of the main intersections of the city. The police beat the protesters. Two of the six women showed the welts left by the policemen's lathi canes across their shoulders and legs. This was several years after the event. The women were thoughtful, funny and seemed to enjoy one another. Heh, I said to myself, these are not the fatalistic stereotypes we imagine the Dhaka poor to be.

The outcastes of Howrah said they had already taken a petition to the High Court signed by 250 of their 400 families. They wanted the Court to explain why it ordered them removed and the garbage left untouched. They will not go to their Member of Parliament who they found cared nothing about them; but they will see the mayor and if they get no explanations, the leader said, "We will fight under the banner of our organization." I was told their organization was a national federation of outcaste people. "We will rally and send petitions and keep after the government till they talk to us."

"We have lived here 70 years," they said. "We have city water pipes and two schools and 200 - 300 of our children go to school. We want a space in this world. We need it more than the garbage dump does." Such is not the talk of fatalists.

I think if we were able to go deeper in our relationship we would appreciate how much they love their children, their Muslim beliefs and have hope in India and Bangladesh.

Traditional culture is very much alive. At an anniversary celebration in a rural village a 45-minute drive from Calcutta, poor women recited the 100-year-old poems of Rabindranath Tagore, a Bengali poet who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. Both Calcutta and Dhaka are parts of historic Bengal. A seven-year old girl performed classic thousand-year-old Indian dances later in the program.

It would definitely help human solidarity in Manila if the well-off could come to know the poor a little better than they do. Ignorance of one another creates stereotypes that have little to do with reality, but set people against each other.

If we know the poor people of Tondo, Payatas or the esteros, we'll marvel at their determined efforts to raise their families. In crowded huts with leaky roofs, and the smell of the garbage pile never far away; with so little food each day that the children cry for more till the mother has to slap them to make them stop, with no place to escape from the noise and crowds and the demands and threats of the world, they keep at it day in, day out, working and nurturing, hoping their children will be better off than themselves. Looked at it this way, their lives are gallant. They believe deeply in God. The slums are abrim with love; they are special places of love, not the urban jungles some people talk about.


Denis Murphy works with the Urban Poor Associates. His e-mail address is upa@pldtdsl.net


http://www.thepoc.net/index.php/Parokya-Sa-Web/Tinig-ng-Maralita/Calcutta-Dhaka-and-the-Poor.html

A Matter of Courage

A Matter of Courage
by Denis Murphy

Development of the urban poor of our big cities requires them to have the courage of warriors. It is usually the women who provide it.

In a Tondo barangay, poor women are threatened with violence simply because they want to bring legal water services into their community. The women want the legal water (Maynilad or Manila Water) because it is four to seven times cheaper than the water they buy now, which is often controlled by mafia types. Women are threatened over the water issue even in a barangay that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo visited and where she supported the people's efforts to get Maynilad by committing P7 million of the local congressman's development funds.

The threats can be alarming. In one barangay, a young woman community organizer received the following message: "Ginugulo nyo kami dito sa lugar namin baka imbes na tubig ay dugo ang umagos dito. Tigilan nyo na kami!" (Stop messing with our community or blood will be shed instead of water).

The threats are often from the kagawads and barangay hangers-on, the women say. They know these men and their families. It is a very emotional situation that easily leads to violence. In the area the president visited, 500 women are now dropping out of the water scheme she supported, because they have been threatened with violence if they continue.

Despite the threats, 40 women in the North Harbor gathered P15,000 and brought Maynilad water into the area, which will save each of them P500-P900 pesos a month. Families who buy water from these women will pay only a little more than the 40 women who invested in the mother meter. They, too, will have big savings. In these days of economic hardship, P500 or more a month is a godsend: perhaps the difference between a healthy child and a malnourished one.

In the beginning, only a few women displayed the courage needed, but courage is catching and the example of a few can create a brave community.

Just when the 40 women had the water problem licked, the Metro Manila Development Authority and the Department of Public Works and Highways came along to tell them they will be evicted, though no relocation will be provided. It took courage to struggle for water; they must now gather up the same courage to resist the eviction.

Such evictions were condemned as illegal by Chairperson Leila de Lima of the Commission on Human Rights. In a CHR Resolution of November 6, 2008 she ordered the MMDA, local governments and national government agencies to stop conducting evictions and demolitions of structures used for dwelling purposes unless the families are relocated according to law.

The Pope's Justice and Peace Commission offers what should be a starting point in our thinking on the urban poor, squatting and eviction: "Any person or family that, without any direct fault on his or her part, does not have suitable housing is the victim of an injustice" (1988). The poor are in the slums as a result of injustice. Evicting them and leaving them homeless compounds the injustice.

The women met the 100-plus-man demolition team of MMDA and waved the CHR order in front of them. The demolition chief talked to them for a short while, then the demolition began. Now the women will go to the mayor. At every step they are warned that they can be hurt or they can "wind up with nothing." Fear is deep in the people. In Navotas, people who have been evicted but are living alongside the demolition area, say every time they see a blue MMDA vehicle they hold onto their children in fear.

It is not just about water or other items. Resistance is the poor's way to assert that they are free persons who want to live in dignity and security. We are not charity cases or useless people. We are not here to be manipulated or humiliated. We work hard and we have the same hopes as all men and women, they say.

Poor men and women find courage deep in their hearts to do all they can about the ills that threaten their world. Can we say as much about the rest of society?

http://www.thepoc.net/index.php/Parokya-Sa-Web/Tinig-ng-Maralita/A-Matter-of-Courage.html

Group seeks UN’s help vs gov’t human rights violations

** NEWS RELEASE *** NEWS RELEASE *** NEWS RELEASE **

13 November 2008. In her speech during the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (UNCESCR) review in Geneva, Switzerland, Chairperson Leila de Lima of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) urged the Philippine government to impose a moratorium on demolitions and forced evictions until consultation and resettlement provisions are implemented.

CHR’s appeal was made during the 41st session of the UNCESCR on November 11-12 which reviewed government compliance with its economic and social obligations including providing adequate and accessible shelter to its constituents especially to the homeless.

De lima also asserted that the country’s housing law, Urban Development Housing Act (UDHA) of 1992 should be amended to extend its protection against summary evictions to people living along railroad tracks, rivers and other areas considered danger zones.

Judge Ariranga Pillay of Mauritius, a member of said UN body, noted the unusually high number of Filipino families forcibly evicted from their homes indicating that these incidents had not abated since the committee first raised this issue to the government back in 1995.

Presidential Human Rights Committee (PHRC) director Severo Catura who was also in the review admitted that there were indeed incidences of violations of housing rights but he assured the UN committee that these were going to be addressed.

Catura also stated that the PHRC already partnered with the CHR in the effort to investigate and monitor housing rights violations particularly forced evictions.

Civil society groups in its alternative report to the committee during the review, estimated that 85,370 families or 505,355 individuals had been evicted since 1996 to 2008 mostly due to urban beautification and infrastructure projects such as the NorthRail and SouthRail projects.

“More than half of these evicted families were displaced during the term of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and also mostly due to the clearing operations of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) led by chairperson Bayani Fernando,” the groups, led by the Urban Poor Associates (UPA), said.

The report on the implementation of the right to adequate housing was prepared by UPA, John J. Caroll Institute on Church and Social Issues, Sentro ng Alternatibong Lingap Panligal (Saligan) and the Foundation for the Development of the Urban Poor.

Aside from the housing rights group, several non-governmental organizations also made reports on the implementation of social and economic rights such as access to food, employment, water, education, and health services.

Based on the civil society report to the UNCESCR, Filipinos' enjoyment of economic and social rights was gravely compromised by certain government priorities, policies, and practices such as the Philippine Mining Act, automatic appropriations for debt servicing, corruption, and unclear population agenda.

Furthermore, issues of concern raised by the UNCESCR back in 1995 such as lack of judicial powers of the CHR, vulnerable situation of children, non-completion and weaknesses of the agrarian reform program, and privatization of health services are still part of present realities.

The civil society report backed by more than one hundred organizations was facilitated by the Philippine Human Rights Information Center (PhilRights), research arm of the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates and the UPA.

Major contributors to the NGO report were the Saligan, Center for Migrant Advocacy, Homenet Southeast Asia, Philippine NGO Coalition for Food Sovereignty, Medical Action Group, Freedom from Debt Coalition, and Education Network – Philippines. -30-

Hiding Behind Numbers

Press Statement

November 6, 2008


Hiding Behind Numbers

On the eve of a United Nation's (UN) review of Philippine efforts to improve the quality of life of its people, the country landed fifth (5th) among the world's most hungry nations with 40% or 4 out of 10 of Filipinos admitting they experienced hunger in the past year according to recent survey of Gallup International.

Despite this bad news, government delegates to the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (UNCESCR) hearing on November 11-12 in Geneva, Switzerland are most likely to say it has implemented policies and programs to satisfy social and economic rights such as access to food, employment, housing, education, and health services.

Moreover, the government in its submission to the UNCESCR painted a rosy economic picture citing reduced poverty from 45.5% in 1988 to 30.4% in 2003 and an average 3-5% growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Gross National Product (GNP) and key sectors of the economy from 2001-2004.

The official report, while acknowledging some weaknesses like lack of spending on public education, also claimed general improvements in the nutritional and health status of Filipinos based on indicators such as infant and maternal mortality rates.

However, civil society groups admonished the government not to emulate Joc-joc Bolante, a former agriculture official implicated in a P700 million fertilizer scam, who kept on evading the truth behind legal technicalities. The administration could not always hide behind statistics and jargons, glimpses of the real situation of its people would inevitably come out in the open like the results of the Gallup hunger study.

Based on the civil society report to the UNCESCR, Filipinos' enjoyment of economic and social rights was gravely compromised by certain government priorities, policies, and practices such as the Philippine Mining Act, automatic appropriations for debt servicing, corruption, and unclear population agenda.

Furthermore, issues of concern raised by the UNCESCR back in 1995 such as lack of judicial powers of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), forced evictions, vulnerable situation of children, non-completion and weaknesses of the agrarian reform program, and privatization of health services are still part of present realities.

This is not surprising since the government failed to heed most of the UNCESCR recommendations made thirteen (13) years ago including increased budget for slum upgrading and affordable housing, fast tracking of the agrarian reform program, and designating a body that would prevent forced evictions.

To put back on track its compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), civil society groups call on the government to take the following steps:

a.) enact legislations on reproductive health, social pension for the elderly, anti-prostitution, patients' rights, mandatory food labelling, Food Security Act, domestic reflection of Precautionary Principles, and Magna Carta for Women;

b.) repeal or amend Mining Act, anti-terrorism law, National Building Code;

c.) prioritize basic services and agriculture development in the national budget and not debt servicing, spending for services should be aligned with internationally and locally recommended standards such as WHO prescription of 5% of GDP for health;

d.) reform mandates of the CHR and other redress mechanisms to give them appropriate powers, make them more independent and insulated from politics, and facilitate civil society participation; and

e.) Aggressively lobby foreign creditors for debt moratorium and/or cancellation / repudiation of onerous and illegitimate liabilities.

The civil society report backed by more than one hundred organizations was facilitated by the Philippine Human Rights Information Center (PhilRights), research arm of the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA) and the Urban Poor Associates (UPA).

Major contributors to the NGO report were the Sentro ng Alternatibong Lingap Panligal (Saligan), Center for Migrant Advocacy (CMA), Homenet Southeast Asia, Philippine NGO Coalition for Food Sovereignty (PNLC), Medical Action Group (MAG), Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), and Education Network – Philippines (E-Net).

Philippine NGO-PO Network for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights


Contact Persons: Nymia Pimentel-Simbulan Dr. PH (433-1714)

Renato Mabunga (436-2633)

Ted Añana (426-4118)

Read on - Philippine NGO Network Report on the Implementation of the International Covenant on
Economic, Social,and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)

Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Roots of democracy

Commentary : Roots of democracy

By Denis Murphy
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Posted date: October 11, 2008

Not long after the $700-billion bailout of banking institutions was announced, we walked down lower Broadway to Wall Street, the “ground zero” of the recent financial disaster. It was a bright sunny afternoon, but Wall Street was deep in shadows.

Wall Street is so narrow (perhaps only 12 meters from the buildings on one side to the buildings across) and the buildings are so tall that the sun shines on it only at high noon.

We sat on the steps of the old Federal Reserve building where George Washington delivered his first inaugural address and waited for something to happen that might explain the collapse, or at least show how the people involved would react.

The street was quiet because traffic was not allowed, except for the sleek, soundless limousines of the very rich. Hundreds of people milled around, mostly tourists and also dozens of policemen eyeing everyone, including people on the steps with apparently nothing to do. Nothing happened. No crowds protested Wall Street’s ruinous behavior. None of the powerful came out to apologize, or tried to atone for the financial crisis by harming themselves, as bankers did in the Great Depression. The tourists, as always, posed for pictures. One of their favorite shots was the flag-bedecked New York Stock Exchange. Another was the larger than life statue of Washington beside us. An Asian TV reporter stood on the pedestal of the statue as he made his report and seemed to interview the old president.

There was an aura of gloom, however — as if the street was aware the good times were over. A few days later, an article would appear in the New York Times under the headline: “Wall Street, R.I.P.”

The collapse of the finance world is hurting every citizen in various degrees — because people are losing their houses and ordinary workers’ pensions are tied up in the devalued stocks. But there were no rallies or protests anywhere, no crowds of investors calling for justice. There was no organized people’s reaction reported anywhere in the country.

People reacted individually, emailing their representatives in Congress, responding to TV polls and man-in-the street interviews, but they did nothing together; there was no social protest. Nowhere was it clear that ordinary people had gathered together, discussed the problem and decided what they as a group would do in response to the Wall Street failure.

The financial collapse seems to be not a concern of angry mobs wanting their money back from banks. People are still behaving as individuals, not as an organized group. The concern is for ordinary people’s thoughtful actions agreed on in their own associations after discussion.

The same pattern appears in the presidential election. Most American voters make up their minds by themselves based on what they learn from their families and the media. There are few associations that bring people of a certain class or work group — or people who share the same interests — to discuss who of the candidates can best do the things they want done. The labor unions and the ethnic Catholic parishes and other ethnic groupings often did this in the past, but the unions are now weak and for the most part the ethnic parishes and groups have largely disappeared. What emerges in group discussions is that people are more inclined to vote based on their own intuition or “gut feeling” rather than on rational self-interest.

In 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville published his “Democracy in America,” which remains one of the very best analyses of American democracy and maybe of all democracies. He found that the role of voluntary associations (cooperatives, political clubs, special interest groups, occupation groups, ideological groups) was crucial in American democracy. He wrote: “Americans of all ages, all stations of life, and all types of disposition are forever forming associations …. In democratic countries, knowledge of how to combine [these associations] is the mother of all other forms of knowledge; on its progress depends that of all the others.”

He said that if the vitality of these associations dried up, democracy as Americans knew it would falter. The associations are the foundation of national movements. They are the cradle of responsible and effective action and politics. Between elections, the associations keep the pressure on government to fulfill its promises.

Philippine democracy can produce people power movements and thousands of NGOs and other types of associations. The first challenge is to increase their number and to encourage the associations to widen their agendas to include national and political problems. The second challenge is, as De Tocqueville said, to unite or combine them into a powerful reality for the common good.

Denis Murphy works with the Urban Poor Associates. His email address is upa@pldtdsl.net.

Copyright 2008 Philippine Daily Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.