Government evicts 4,400 families from waterways

THE Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has evicted some 4,400 families (22,000 persons) from major waterways in Metro Manila.

DILG Secretary Mar Roxas said this is part of the government's Integrated Flood Plan, which he presented during the Flood Summit held last month at the House of Representatives.

About 100,000 families live in danger zones, including some 60,000 along waterways.

Roxas said the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) will evict some 19,440 families (97,200 persons) in order to clean up eight major waterways.

The government's budget for the relocation is P50 billion. A financial assistance worth P18,000 will be distributed (P1,500 a month rental assistance) to each family who agrees to be evicted even if the relocation is not yet provided.

To keep the informal settlers (squatters) from leaving their distant relocation sites, the DILG has constructed few near-site or on-site medium rise buildings in Manila.

President Benigno Aquino III has instructed that the relocation efforts should not displace families from their sources of livelihood and schools.

Source: http://www.rappler.com/news/57635-dilg-moves-families-danger-zones

Related story by UPA: 59 families in Estero de San Miguel-Legarda move to Muzon, Bulacan

Slum dwellers face forced eviction; Road widening project to leave 1,600 homeless

Slum dwellers in five villages of Tondo district in Manila were evicted last Tuesday (April 22) to make way for a road-widening project by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

The P100 million Road 10 (R-10) project will add two more lanes to its 2-kilometer section adjacent to Manila's North Harbor area. It is expected to improve traffic flow in Metro Manila but it will also render some 1,600 people homeless.

Homelessness may yet again be the fate of 27-year-old Mary Jane Paco, who lives with her husband and one-year-old child.

Paco’s family used to lived on the sidewalk outside the Santo Niño de Tondo Parish Church. The shanty on Road 10 has provided them shelter for the last three years.

"We may yet again live on the streets, and maybe go back to our old refuge on the sidewalk outside the Tondo church after authorities flatten our home," she said.

Yolanda Gamido, 53, finds herself in the same predicament. She is a renter and is not qualified for relocation. The mother of two now lives alone, barely getting by on her pension.

Ammie Serafin, a former overseas worker said she has heavily invested in Road 10. She bought a land property, renting out the 15 rooms in her three-storey house. She also bought other properties in the area.

Judith Javar, a 35-year-old mother of four, was born and raised in the slums along Road 10. Last year her family was relocated to Bocaue, Bulacan, about 30 kilometers northeast of Manila. She said she returned to Tondo because there is no livelihood in the relocation site.

Javar prays for a better life now that she will be forced to return to the relocation site; otherwise she becomes homeless.

Sixty-one-year-old Merly Barredo, a long-time resident of R-10, will be relocated to Bocaue. The National Housing Authority (NHA) gave her a US$22 allowance and provided a truck to transport her personal belongings. Barredo works as a candy vendor in Tondo, earning $7-11 a day.

She came to Manila 30 years ago to seek a better life. She said the life she had on Road 10 was actually better than the rural life in her hometown in Aklan province.

"Being relocated to Bocaue is like returning to my life in the mountains," she said.

The demolition is expected to finish by the end of the month.

Some urban poor groups say it was illegal and they blame the privatization of Manila's port as the reason behind the demolition.

Source: http://www.ucanews.com/news/slum-dwellers-prepare-for-demolition-in-manila/70786

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

Manila parish refuses to fight demolitions

A PASTORAL council in Metro Manila has dismissed accusations that it is not concerned about government attempts to demolish parishioners’ homes in Santolan, Pasig City.

The accusations came after picketing residents successfully blocked a 100-strong demolition team on Aug. 9. They pointed out that no Church officials were seen among them on the picket lines.

However, Denis Teodoro, president of Santo Tomas de Villanueva parish council, countered that “our parish priest does go to the area. We discuss the problem at our meetings. It’s not true the parish doesn’t care, but we want to find the right solution to a problem that has many angles to it.”

The government wants to demolish around 15,000 homes because they are along the Marikina River and Manggahan floodway and are badly affected by occurrences like last September’s Typhoon Ketsana.

© Full report at ucanews.com

Floodway and Salubong

When you walk along the Manggahan Floodway these days, as we did last week, past kilometer after kilometer of bulldozed houses and rubble, you may think you are in East Jerusalem or Afghanistan. The dismal scene is not the work of the Jewish military or the Taliban, however, but that of the Philippine government evicting 60,000 poor families.

This eviction in Pasig is part of the post-Ondoy rehabilitation work, government claims, but residents say they were scarcely affected by Ondoy: no one died and the houses survived. They admit there is a need to improve the area’s abilities to resist natural disasters, but they say there is no need to remove the families. The people believe the real operative plan of government is to remove the poor and replace them with up-scale housing, commercial establishments, and to enrich those who make all that possible.

The plan to replace them was conceived long before Ondoy, the people told us. They were working then with Atty. Bienvenido Salinas of the Urban Poor Associates’ St. Thomas More Law Center to bring a case to court to stop that plan when the floods came. It’s the same plan of government, but now it is driven by the national government agencies. Before Pasig City was the driving force.

The number of families threatened in recent months by the Supreme Court decision on Manila Bay and the eviction orders of national agencies, reaches as high as 400,000 families, according to estimates based on government news reports,

The alarming dimension of all this violence is not just the sheer size, but the fact that government agencies charged with protecting the people and the institutions of civil society haven’t protested dramatically against the unusually large number of violations of law and human rights. An older Filipino told me, as we walked along the Floodway, that we were nearing the end of the democratic road since there was only silence and not a roar of protest over so many poor families shipped to far off resettlement sites where there is little work or no work for them.

On Easter Sunday, the Salubong of Jesus and the Virgin Mary was held on the Floodway at the Legazpi Bridge that spans the water. Jesus and Mary, played by giant puppets, approached each other in two bancas as thousands of people watched. At the bridge they met and a child angel removed Mary’s black veil. The white robes shone in the afternoon sun. Then side by side the bancas came to the shore where crowds of people surged to the water’s edge to meet them. The puppets were carried ashore while little girls in white sang hymns. A prayer service followed.

Wouldn’t it be nice, I thought, if the risen Jesus and Mary could come to the threatened urban poor communities and strengthen them in their struggle for a decent place to raise their children?

Jesus and Mary do come, of course, in the form of young community organizers and priests, sisters, medical workers and people of all professions and backgrounds, including the people’s own leaders, who help the poor help themselves, and help them grow in dignity and confidence. A society that stands quietly by and allows massive evictions to take place will face a harsh judgment from the Lord on Judgment Day, according to Matthew’s Gospel 25: 31-46).

As the prayer service ended, airplanes flew over in silence, as if they respected the people’s sorrow, but were admitting they couldn’t do anything to help. However, when the planes were high up, there was a powerful roar of the engines. Was that an omen that our society will no longer tolerate the eviction of thousands upon thousands of innocent children? Will the future be different?

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

Quezon City Police dispersal and arrests of urban poor victims of demolition

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

CHR vows to investigate violent R-10 Navotas demolition

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

CHR vows to investigate violent R-10 Navotas demolition

25 February 2010. Chairperson Leila de Lima of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) yesterday vowed to investigate a violent demolition along the R-10 road in Navotas, involving some personnel of the local government, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Navotas Engineering Office, Navotas Police and Navotas Fire Station.

Chairperson de Lima said she will subpoena those who were involved particularly the Navotas policemen who beat up poor women old enough to be their grandmothers.

Women and children wouldn’t disperse from a human barricade they had formed on Jan. 20 to protect their homes against actions of the DPWH which they believed were illegal. They live on land designated for the widening of R-10 road that runs along Manila Bay.

Some of the sixteen women beaten by police sought the protection of CHR during a hearing yesterday. They presented pictures showing their wounds, bandaged toes and the lesions on their arms sustained from the shields and clubs used against them. The women were also water cannoned from a distance of a few feet.

The use of water cannons is illegal in such evictions, according to lawyer Ritche Esponilla of Urban Poor Associates (UPA). Esponilla helped the women in filing a joint affidavit at the CHR right after the forced eviction.

“The Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP) itself wrote a letter of concern saying the Certificate of Compliance (COC) issued by the Navotas Local Housing Board to DPWH is not in accordance with the law,” Esponilla pointed out.

“The demolition is illegal because they went ahead with another questionable way to plan the eviction. Instead of relocation, the DPWH offered P21,000 to families to move, an alternative not mentioned in Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992,” Esponilla added.

Esponilla and leaders of Samahang Pinagbuklod ng Pagkakaisa (SAPIPA) went to the Supreme Court on Jan. 15 to file a very urgent motion for early resolution of petition with reiterative prayer for the issuance of preliminary injunction and/or temporary restraining order (TRO). Petitioners filed their petition on April 16, 2008. The High Court gave due course to the said petition although it did not issue the injunction or TRO sought for. The instant petition had not been resolve yet.

The residents agree to move and they qualify for the relocation, according to Task Force Anti Eviction, an eviction watchdog composed of community organizations and NGOs such as UPA, Community Organization for the Philippine Enterprise (COPE), and Community Organizers Multiversity (COM). “In fact R-10 Navotas is listed as among the 11 priority areas for Montalban relocation which is certified by the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC),” the group said

“We are not against development. We were just protecting our homes and our rights as human beings. They don’t have to use shields, truncheons and water cannons against women and children,” said Prescilda Juanich, leader of SAPIPA.

Chairperson de Lima told her lawyers to write letters inviting those who were involved in the demolition, including Navotas City Mayor Toby Tiangco to justify their actions. “Why do they have to inflict injuries? There should be a cease and desist order pending the investigation,” de Lima said. -30-

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

Santa in Balintawak

Inquirer Opinion / Columns

Commentary : Santa in Balintawak

By Denis Murphy
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Posted date: December 29, 2009

IF you would like to know how it feels to be a presidential candidate, a movie star or even a pope, just dress up as Santa Claus and go to a poor area of Metro Manila. You will need bodyguards to protect you, not from pickpockets and addicts, but from the crowds of children who will drown you in their affection and excitement if you are not careful.

I was Santa Claus this year to hundreds of young children of the scavengers and market workers who live against the wall of the GenTex Compound in Balintawak. When we were near the place, I put on my red Santa jacket, white wig and whiskers and began to wave to people along the way. Everyone, even the tough guys stripped to the waist who looked as if they were ready at any time for a knife-fight and the tired-looking women, smiled back and waved. If I waved back and forth quickly, the people waved quickly, and I felt like Noynoy Aquino or Manny Pacquiao. When I waved slowly the crowds waved slowly and I felt like Pope Benedict XVI. I knew how he must feel speeding through crowds in his pope mobile. Everyone recognized Santa; everyone was glad to see him. It was an exhilarating feeling.

The sponsors had given me bags of candy to distribute to the children. Be careful doing that! Hundreds of children coming at you to get their candy is scary. Don’t try it unless the children are lined up safely in some sort of traffic control contraption designed by Bayani Fernando and watched over by their mothers. I told the children all about Santa, who he was and where he came from and what Santa wanted for them and their city when they grew up. There should be enough food for everyone, good schools, and good jobs for all, I told them. I sensed the children wishing in their own way that I’d hurry up, so that the gift-giving and the meal could begin.

The children were strikingly beautiful and I thought I recognized some of them.

In 1998 a demolition team from Quezon City Hall came to evict the people living in this same place. The people asked them not to insist on the eviction because five of their children were sick of dengue and might die if they were forced to sleep in the open. One child had already died of the disease, the people said, and showed the team the body of the child which was still in one of the houses. The demolition team examined the dead child and still tore down the huts. In the morning the five children were dead. The parents went to the mayor who told the miserably poor people he would pay 20 percent of the burial expenses and no more.

We had young community organizers working with us in that place, who brought the coffins holding the children to City Hall. We arrived in a truck. The guards said we couldn’t unload the coffins, but they were afraid to come close to the dead bodies to stop us. We lay the dead by the main flag pole, and stayed there all day while a drum beat a sad rhythm. At first the mayor refused to come down, but when it looked as if we might stay and the media were gathering, he did come. Eventually he agreed to bury the children, relocate the families to Payatas and punish the demolition team.

We buried the dead children then in the saddest funeral I have ever attended. We were in the pauper’s plot of the cemetery where the bones of other dead stuck out of the soil. There was no priest or anyone to say a prayer, except the parents and neighbors.

The families of the dead children still live in that area. The children greeting me as Santa Claus may have been their brothers and sisters. The place is as dirty and crowded as ever and the people are still threatened with eviction.

God keeps giving us beautiful children and we keep forcing them to live in slums like Balintawak. “What have you done with my children?” God may well ask us one day. While we rebuild the city after “Ondoy,” can we concentrate on what is the most important need for us to worry about, namely, the future of the children of the poor?

It is Christmas, isn’t it? Good things can happen.

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

http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20091229-244578/Santa-in-Balintawak

©Copyright 2001-2009 INQUIRER.net, An Inquirer Company

Cruelty to the poor and democracy

Inquirer Opinion / Columns

Commentary : Cruelty to the poor and democracy

By Denis Murphy
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Posted date: November 29, 2009

CRUELTY TO THE POOR BY GOVERNMENT people or the agents of the powerful are always surprising, since it seems so unnecessary. The urban poor with whom I’ve worked for many years are among the most patient, tolerant and realistic people God ever made. There’s no need for violence of any sort. The people will cooperate in any government plan that is based on consultations and common sense.

Instead, there is an endless tale of violence big and small done to them, which in the end undermines the people’s sense of their dignity and democracy itself, just as long rains loosen the soil on the hillside and eventually bring down the whole hill or mountain.

Cruelty manages to turn first-class citizens into resentful people, willing to scheme and do whatever may be needed to get what they want for themselves. Think of how the people of Estero dela Reina will react to government in the future after their experience with an eviction team of the Metro Manila Development Authority on Nov. 11. The people were told they had to get out of their homes of 20 or more years and relocate to the Norzagaray resettlement area, 40 kilometers or more away. They didn’t want to go, but they had little choice: whether they agreed to go or not their homes would be torn down.

The eviction turned out badly. People including women were injured in violent scuffles with the MMDA. Nothing is uglier than seeing women and even pregnant women and the demolition team fighting over pieces of lumber and G.I. roofing. Finally 10 families left Binondo in an MMDA truck at about 4 p.m. with a cross-section of poor people, the elderly, a few men, women, small children and babies. They arrived at the resettlement area at 8 p.m. because of the heavy traffic. The barangay captain there told them they couldn’t enter because they didn’t have the proper papers. They came back to Binondo at 11 p.m. to sleep on the sidewalk.

An almost similar episode took place a few days earlier. Families from Santolan, Pasig were brought to the Calauan resettlement area, 100 km from Manila. When they got there, they found there were no homes for them. They returned to Santolan, though now they were homeless. The callousness of the officials involved is breathtaking. No one apologizes. Not every poor person has to experience cruelty personally. Word of it travels fast in poor communities.

Sometimes matters turn truly violent. On Oct. 10 in North Fairview, Quezon City, Myrna Porcare, 52, was shot down with a shotgun at a distance of two or three meters by the security guards of the landowner. Her offense was to try to remove a fence put up illegally by the guards. Police watched the incident develop, but didn’t intervene. Myrna’s son was also killed. The killers are now out on bail.

It seems clear in this incident that these guards are not for security at all. No one was threatening them or the landowner, and the police were there to protect the demolition crew. The guards were not needed. Can the rich buy what can be called “special forces,” or “guns for hire,” who can be sent into an area to do whatever the owner wants?

There are even more harsh incidents against the poor in the rural areas, around mining sites, in factories and plantations, and once in a while something like the Maguindanao massacre. People treated unfairly over time lose any sense that they are citizens of a democracy where their rights as human beings under God should be guaranteed and their human freedoms defended. To be a citizen should bring rights and security, and, hence, pride. Even St. Paul was proud to say he was a Roman citizen (Acts 16:37).

Paradoxically, it should be added that Filipino government officials are among the most accessible officials in the world. Hundreds of poor people meet the President every month, troop the halls of the House and Senate, visiting the officials one after the other, or talk to their mayors and Cabinet officers. That is democracy at its best.

Of all the varieties of violence the saddest is that between the demolition teams and the urban poor men and women. The demolition people are urban poor themselves, so it is one poor man trying to keep his family going against another poor man or woman trying to do exactly the same. The powerful have set poor against poor. Nothing destroys more quickly any sense of brotherhood and sisterhood among the poor. It is sinister for that reason.

In the last analysis these cruel ways come down from the top officials and the elite, as do most values in society, so it’s up to the powerful to stop the practice.

On Nov. 18 in front of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources people had a chance to witness how citizens can deal with abuses of authority. The people of Mindoro were there to protest a Norwegian mining company’s activity on the island. There were the governors and bishops of the two provinces, the clergy, mayors, academicians, Fr. Robert Reyes, NGOs, Mangyans and other ordinary people. They were telling the environment secretary they couldn’t accept the permission he gave to the mining company to begin work. They said he had made a big mistake. How in a democracy can a single national official overrule a decision of all the people of an island, who are the most likely to know their situation and what is best for them? The people of Mindoro show the effectiveness of people at different levels of society joining together in search of good law, the proper use of authority—and democracy.

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

©Copyright 2001-2009 INQUIRER.net, An Inquirer Company


http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20091129-239240/Cruelty-to-the-poor-and-democracy

Jihad at Our Doorstep?

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

Jihad at Our Doorstep?

19 November 2009. Muslim men and demolition crew were throwing stones at each other. Pasay police were firing guns. Children, women, and elderly were running and no safe place to go. These were the scenes yesterday in the Rajah Sulayman Lumba Ranao Grand Mosque along Roxas Blvd. , Pasay City, during the execution of demolition of shanties surrounding the mosque.

Abdelmanan Tanandato, president of Samahan ng Nagkakaisang Nademolis sa Roxas Boulevard was teary eyed when he found out that three of his people died including a young boy. But he was composed adding, “That there is nothing to worry about. The dead men are already in paradise with Allah because they were killed in jihad defending the holy mosque.”

Task Force Anti-Eviction (TFAE) composed of various people’s organizations and NGOs such as the Urban Poor Associates (UPA), Community Organizers Multiversity (COM), and the Community Organization of the Philippine Enterprise Foundation (COPE) said that they had warned the government that blood will flow on the disputed land if they will pursue the demolition. But the government turned deaf ears.

Now, that they had tried forcible eviction which resulted in death, the TFAE is wondering what will happen to our Muslim brothers and sisters. They also wonder whether the police involved will be questioned about their activity? The group says there is already too much violence in the evictions done in Manila .

Tanandato and the entire Muslim community will file criminal charges against the Pasay police. They will also question the notice to vacate dated August 11, 2009 from Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 274, as not valid to carry out the eviction. The order was not implemented on August thus, another 30-day notice is necessary.

“We were just informed by some friends that we must prepare because the demolition would be executed anytime in the month. Our only weapons against the eight hundred man demolition team were stones and slings. We barricaded the mosque but when the police fire their guns and shot our men, our group weakened,” he added.

Amir Saripada, one who fought the police, said, “Kami ay isa sa mga milyon-milyong Pilipino pero hindi nila kami tinatrato ng tama. Iniisip ko na nga lang bumalik sa Mindanao para maging sakit na ng lipunan.” (We are one of the million Filipinos but we are not treated right. I am thinking of going back to Mindanao to become the enemy of society.)

The public officials who were present yesterday said that they will not demolish the mosque until a new mosque is constructed on a 500 square meter property in Parañaque. This refers to the memorandum issued by Secretary Eduardo Ermita on 26th of May this year to Philippine Reclamation Authority Manager Andrea Domingo, Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza, and Office of Muslim Affairs Executive Director Ali Sangki informing them of President’s instruction to relocate the entire mosque to a proposed relocation site adjacent to the Coastal Road . The memorandum said the reclaimed land on which the mosque stands must be cleared to give way to Southwest Public Transport Intermodal Center (Metrotrans).

However, UPA’s Research team, found out that the Lot No. 5155 in Parañaque where the new mosque will be built has a private claimant in the name of Bernardo De Leon. The case is still pending in the Supreme Court.

Ted Añana, Deputy Coordinator of UPA said, “This is the third time that violent eviction took place in that reclaimed land. Still, the government has no acceptable relocation site for the residents and the place for new mosque is dubious.”

“We cannot blame the Muslims in their resistance,” Añana added. “For them, it is a sacred place and defending the mosque up to their last breath is superior in the eyes of Allah. We are reiterating again to the government to let the mosque stay and make it a symbol of Muslim and Christian understanding.”

-30-

Demolition in Baclaran turns bloody

12 hurt in Baclaran demolition
11/19/2009 | 12:38 AM




Tension mars demolition of shanties in Pasay City

11/18/2009 | 10:48 AM




12 hurt in demolition in Pasay City
11/18/2009 | 12:49 PM

Urban Poor Mother, Son Killed

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Urban Poor Mother, Son Killed

Quezon City, 13 October 2009. Maria Myrna Porcare, a vocal leader of Samahan ng Magkakapitbahay sa Pechayan (SAMASAPE), and his son Jimyr Porcare were shot dead by the land owner-hired security guards on October 9, 2009, Friday afternoon over a disputed piece of property in Pechayan, Brgy. North Fairview, a community near Tullahan River.

According to witnesses, the victim was just trying to stop the guards from fencing the area because they were already going beyond what was stated in the court order. The 2.4 hectare Pechayan is home for more than 1,000 informal settler families for about 20 years. The revival of eviction case against a certain Domingo couple at the Metropolitam Trial Court Branch 38 of Quezon City sustained Melecio Lavares’ claim over a portion of land. The land owner was able to secure a writ of execution against Domingo.

However, the guards adamantly continued fencing the entire 2.4 hectares of land which was beyond the court’s order. Thus, settlers resisted. Porcare was killed by a shotgun blast in the stomach. Her son came to rescue his mother but he was also shot dead in the thorax. Carrying shotguns, some 15 security guards are present at the crime scene.

Suspects were charged two counts of homicide with the help of Urban Poor Associates (UPA), a housing rights NGO. The suspects were detained at the Crime Investigation Detection Unit of Camp Karingal on Oct. 9.

Lawyer Ritche Esponilla, UPA legal counsel, said, “We will never tire ourselves prosecuting the two suspects to make sure that justice will be served to the mother and son who were unlawfully killed for fighting over their shelter rights.”

“We are likewise weighing all legal possibilities if we can file charges against the land claimant, the security agency and even against the sheriff for failing to properly supervise the execution of the issued writ which led to this very unfortunate incident,” he added.

Father Robert Reyes, also known as the running priest, in a mass this morning emphasized the greatness of the mother and son who died protecting their rights as a citizen of this country. “The mother died protecting her family’s right to housing and as a consequence her son also died protecting his mother’s right to live. They are heroes of urban poor,” he told residents during the homily.

“The rights of the poor diminished all of a sudden because of the government’s negligence to its duty to serve and protect. But we should not lose hope and instead justice should be served to Myrna and Jimyr’s death by continuing our fight for decent housing,” the Catholic priest added

Task Force Anti-Eviction composed of various people’s organizations and NGOs such as UPA, Community Organizers Multiversity (COM) and Community Organization of the Philippine Enterprise (COPE) Foundation condemn the killing.

The group urges the government to act “with expediency to resolve this crime and to investigate the conduct of demolitions and evictions, may it involve government or private land.” -30-



Maria Myrna Porcare - 42-year-old



Jimyr Porcare - 18-year-old

UPA Crisis Intervention (Anti-Eviction) Work

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

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‘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-

Running Priest to join Muslims in fasting and prayers at the Grand Mosque in Pasay City

Attention: News Editor, News Desk, Reporters and Photojournalists

MEDIA ADVISORY

Running Priest to join Muslims in fasting and prayers at the Grand Mosque in Pasay City

Fr. Robert Reyes, the running priest, will stage a fasting with Muslims tomorrow (September 19) beginning at 9:00 AM at the Grand Mosque in Baclaran, Pasay City to publicise a petition concerning the demolition of the mosque and the eviction of urban poor families living in the community.

The Muslim community started reclaiming the land in 1992. In 1993, the Grand Mosque was built. In 1994, the Muslim leaders decided to make it concrete. It was completed in 2002 and the total amount of expenses reached 11.3 million pesos. Various Muslim groups donated the money while some residents contributed their hard-earned money.

The Muslims built the mosque at the reclamation area in Baclaran with the endorsement of the then Parañaque City Mayor Joey Marquez. The area is now considered a part of Pasay City.

But now they are told to vacate the community to give way to Southwest Public Transport Intermodal Center. The said area is also reportedly being developed for commercial establishments, including casinos.

Fr. Robert will join the Muslims in prayers and silence as they mark the end of Ramadan.

Date: September 19, 2009 (Saturday) / 9:00 AM

Venue: Grand Mosque, Baclaran, Pasay City

Demolition of Baclaran Mosque during Ramadan Looms

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Demolition of Baclaran Mosque during Ramadan Looms

28 August 2009. Will they demolish our place of worship during our most holy time?

This was the question raised today by a Muslim group concerning the proposed plan by the local government to demolish their Grand Mosque occupying a reclaimed land in Pasay City.

The said area is reportedly being developed for the establishment of commercial establishments, including casinos.

In a statement, Abdelmanan Tanandato, leader of Samahan ng Nagkakaisang Nademolis sa Roxas Boulevard said the government’s plan to demolish their place of worship even during their holiest time is the height of insensitivity and callousness.

"Clearly, at the rate things are going, they are hell bent in destroying our mosque. Proof of this, they even threatened to do it during Ramadan, the holiest period in the religious lives of the Muslims," Tanandato said.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It 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.

Tanandato said Sheriff Jeffrey Sales of Parañaque Regional Trial Court (RTC) branch 274 served a Notice to Vacate on August 13, 2009, few days before the start of Ramadan.

Signed by lawyer Roberto Makalintal, Jr., branch clerk, the Parañaque RTC issued the notice to Baclaran-Parañaque City Islamic Cultural Center, Inc. and/or to Nasser D. Ramos and Jalil Moluk and Sultan Sohayle Cosain Tanandato, defendants on the reclamation site in Roxas Boulevard.

The notice stated that "all the adverse occupants are hereby given three (3) days from receipt by virtue of the alias writ of execution dated August 11, 2009 to voluntary vacate and peacefully surrender the premises they are occupying."

The notice also said "failure to vacate, the government will be constrained to use force and effect the said order to the full force and limit provided by law."

Tanandato said they filed a Motion to Quash / Hold in Abeyance the writ of execution at the Parañaque RTC last August 14, 2009. The hearing is set on August 28, 2009 (Friday).

"We appeal to the government to hear and exhaust all the legal venues for us to arrive at an amicable settlement of the issue instead of threatening our community with violence and forced eviction," Tanandato said.

Meanwhile, Imam Abdul Fatah Sarip warned that blood might spill if the government will pursue with its plan to demolish the mosque.

"Muslims brothers and sisters would gladly offer their lives during Ramadan if it is the only way to save their place of worship from utter destruction," Sarip said.

Task Force Anti-Eviction, 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, have been demanding the government to defer the demolition.

Lawyer Bienvenido Salinas II, legal counsel of UPA, said they are also drafting a house resolution in aid of legislation halting the demolition of the mosque. The said resolution is in partnership with ABA-AKO Party-list Rep. Leonardo Montemayor. -30-

Demolition of Mosque a Ticking Time Bomb Says Archbishop Cruz

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Demolition of Mosque a Ticking Time Bomb Says Archbishop Cruz

13 August 2009. The government’s plan to demolish a Mosque is a ticking time bomb, a high-ranking Catholic bishop said in reaction to reports that the Grand Mosque located in Pasay City will be demolished this month to make way for commercial establishments including casinos.

In a statement, Dagupan-Lingayen Archbishop Oscar Cruz said, “The demolition of the mosque is a ticking time bomb because it will cascade into a mishmash of complicated and sensitive religious, cultural and social issues.”

“Destroying a religious symbol in place of a symbol of vice and greed is the height of arrogance and brazenness. It is a violation of Christian and Muslim religious tradition and beliefs,” said Archbishop Cruz, also a known anti-gambling crusader.

According to Islamic law, it is forbidden to destroy houses of worships, including Christian Churches.

“We told the government that we will not leave the mosque. If declaring holy war is the only way to preserve our mosque, we will do it,” said Abdelmanan Tanandato, president of Samahan ng Nagkakaisang Nademolis sa Roxas Boulevard.

Imam Abdul Fatah Sarip said, “If we die during Ramadan for defending our holy mosque, it means we will be rewarded twice by Allah. This gives us more courage to fight for our place of worship even it means our death. Unless the government heeds our call, blood may possibly flow on this disputed land.”

In a May 26 memorandum to Philippine Recalamation Authority, Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Transportation and Communications and Office of Muslim Affairs, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita informed government agencies of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s instruction to relocate the entire Mosque structure to a proposed relocation site adjacent to the Coastal Road. The memorandum said the reclaimed land must be cleared to give way to Southwest Public Transport Intermodal Center (Metrotrans).

However, it was reported to Muslim residents that the land, where the Muslim community and mosque are situated, is very valuable and destined for commerce, luxury housing and casinos.

The Task Force Anti-Eviction composed of various people’s organizations and NGOs such as the Urban Poor Associates (UPA), Community Organizers Multiversity (COM) and Community Organization of the Philippine Enterprise (COPE) Foundation said Ramadan is only eight days away and yet the government is ignoring the plea of the Muslim community, civil society organizations and international human rights group to stop its plan to demolish the mosque.

“Evictions are a common problem between government and urban poor people. However, in this particular case, the issue has become complicated as it is in direct conflict with the Muslim community’s religious and cultural beliefs,” said Ted Añana, deputy coordinator of UPA.

“The least that the government can do is to spare this mosque from forced eviction. The government should be reasonable, judicious, and considerate in resolving the problem since this issue or the kind of action to be taken is very sensitive in view of its religious, social, cultural, legal and political ramifications that will certainly have long lasting national and international consequences,” Añana added.

Archbishop Cruz agreed. “Considering the anger and disgust of many Filipino Christians towards the ruling administration, the last thing it needs is the ire and hatred of Filipino Muslims,” Cruz concluded.

Some 14 demolition incidents were monitored in 2008 which affected 2,411 families, according to the UPA. The anti-eviction group is lobbying for the House Bill No. 6675 filed by Aba-Ako Party-List Rep. Leonardo Montemayor. The bill is entitled to “An act securing the rights of urban poor beneficiaries to proper housing amending for the purpose Republic Act 7279 otherwise known as Urban Development and Housing Act (UDHA).” It seeks to amend several sections of UDHA to strengthen the protected right of every Filipino to a decent home, and provide sanctions upon those who violate the mandate of the law.

-30-

Urban poor group to picket HUDCC office

Attention: News Editor, News Desk, Reporters and Photojournalists

MEDIA ADVISORY

Urban poor group to picket HUDCC office

Some 300 urban poor people will converge at the Ninoy Aquino monument (Ayala Avenue corner Paseo de Roxas) in Makati City on Tuesday morning and beginning at 9:00 AM they will march toward the office of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) located at the Banco de Oro Building (Paseo de Roxas corner Makati Avenue) to protest the government agency’s inaction in providing relocation to urban poor families affected by demolitions and forced evictions.

Members of the Task Force Anti-Eviction met President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in August 1 last year and she ordered various government agencies including HUDCC to develop the Montalban relocation site with an initial budget of 300 million pesos. Nothing has happened since. People will ask HUDCC, what happened to the money and the relocation?

Urban poor communities are constantly threatened with forced evictions. Evicted families have been living on sidewalks exposed to the elements of heat and rain. What happened to the promise of the president?

Photo ops: Demonstrators will wear colorful boxes shaped like houses on their heads which symbolize their right to shelter. Songs of protest. Giant slide show.

Date: August 11, 2009 (Tuesday)

Time: 9:00 AM

Assembly Point: Ninoy Aquino monument, Ayala Avenue corner Paseo de Roxas