But not exactly poor: 2 million live in slums

POVERTY in slum settlements cannot be simply overcome through traditional poverty reduction programs such as cash transfers.

The Philippine government should take regulatory actions that cut cross administrative boundaries, as environmental issues cannot be isolated by geographical and political boundaries, Dr. Marife Ballesteros argued in a book published this month by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

ADB noted that while Southeast and East Asia regions have made major progress in reducing income poverty, living standards for many poor people remain a major challenge due to worsening environmental degradation and increasing vulnerability to climate change.

“Environments of the Poor” was the theme of a conference which the ADB and some 17 development partners organized on 24–26 November 2010 in New Delhi. The papers on Southeast Asia, East Asia, and the Pacific at this conference were revised and edited for this publication.

In her paper Slum Poverty in the Philippines: Can the Environment Agenda Drive Public Action?, Dr. Ballesteros described the demographics of Metro Manila which is home to about 2 million slum dwellers or about 16 percent of its population (11.5 million) in 2010.

Dr. Ballesteros writes: Households in slums are not necessarily income poor ... More than 50% live above the poverty line and can spend between US$2 and US$4 per day, but reside in poor environments. The slum-dwellers who live above the poverty line usually make minimum salaries or wages and work casually. They continue living in the slums because there is no alternative shelter in the city and “they cannot afford the cost of travelling from distant, less expensive, peri-urban regions for work and income earning opportunities in urban centers.”

She added that at the same time, not all the poor live in slums. Some are scattered around the city in areas with similar physical environments as the slums — a deficit of infrastructure and an insecurity of tenure.

The study was mainly based on interviews in four slum areas in Metro Manila, and enriched with some secondary statistics.

It also highlighted the following: environment of the slums and how it causes poverty; higher expenditure on basic services; higher health risk from urban environment and climate change; damage to social fabric and mental well-being; damage to lives and property of slum poor.

Dr. Ballesteros concludes: Unfortunately, these problems do not motivate the government to act since the government does not look at shelter deprivation as part of urban poverty caused by the environment. Shelter deprivation is mainly perceived as income poverty. Thus, government programs on shelter are mostly directed to improving affordability of individual households. Less attention is given to settlement planning and infrastructure development. The threat to settlements brought about by climate change are mainly translated into activities and strategies for disaster response rather than effective prevention.

The solution to slum poverty thus involves giving adequate attention to town planning to ensure appropriate land use planning and proper implementation of building codes and environmental laws. The provision of space for housing low-income families and the expansion of urban infrastructure to underserved, informal settlements should be an integral component of town planning.

News Report: http://www.malaya.com.ph/business-news/business/not-exactly-poor-2m-live-slums

Source: http://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/pub/2014/environments-of-poor-southeast-asia.pdf

Photo by John Francis Lagman: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jlagman17/514430524

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

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

If the bishops wrote to the poor

Commentary : If the bishops wrote to the poor

By Denis Murphy
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Posted date: July 21, 2008

MANILA, Philippines - There has been a long debate in the church over its social teaching, not so much with the content, the “what” of the teaching, but about the most effective way to get it implemented, the “how” of the matter.

It is a matter of audiences. Ordinarily the papal encyclicals and the letters of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines address the government and influential private citizens, asking them to protect workers’ rights, implement land reform or extend it, stop illegal forced evictions, ban trawlers from offshore waters and take care of other problems. This approach sees the elite as the agents of change.

Another audience for the letters and encyclicals might be the workers, farmers, urban poor and fishermen of the world and the Philippines. The hierarchy might explain the Church’s teaching as it relates to the poor sectors, explain their human rights and urge them to take organized action to achieve their rights and reform the situation. This approach is far rarer than the first, though some popes, including Pope John Paul II, had encouraged workers to act through their unions. Think of Poland’s Solidarity, for example. This approach sees the poor as the agents of change. In the end it’s a matter of emphasis: both government and the organized poor are needed.

It wouldn’t be surprising if some of our bishops began to wonder if it is useful any longer to keep appealing to Philippine government leaders and the powerful to take up reform. The bishops over the years have given more support to land reform than any other social problem, and yet they can’t even get a very ordinary law extended. The Philippines is the first democracy to drop its land reform program before it is finished.

Maybe, the bishops will soon come to believe it is more useful to talk directly to the poor than to continue engaging with officials who politely nod in agreement with the Church’s suggestions and then continue with business as usual. In the concrete situation existing in the country with the officials and growing problems the people face, it seems the right time to speak to the poor.

If they ever write such a letter it might go like this:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Our past letters on social problems don’t seem to have done much good. Many times, for example, we appealed to our leaders for effective land reform, but to no avail. Congress failed to extend it. We’ve talked of workers’ problems, mining and the problems tribal people face, but those letters, too, have had little effect. It’s time to talk directly to you.

Before going further, we wish to ask about something that puzzles us and many other people, namely, why are you so patient? There are food and oil price riots in many countries; in South Korea 50,000 people go into the streets each night to protest the importation of American beef, yet here in the Philippines, which is as poor and as hard hit as any other country by the soaring prices, there seems to be only passive acceptance. This is not our history. Look at the peasant uprisings of the past, look at Edsa I. What has caused this recent passivity?

Have you lost hope in life and the possibility of change? Have you lost faith in government, the elite, the Church? We can imagine your pain with the way things have become worse and worse, but don’t give up for the sake of your children and for the good of the whole country.

What is your perception of the Church? Do you feel it is on your side in the justice struggles that will fashion the Philippines of tomorrow? Do you feel you are in the Church of the Poor that we vowed to become at the Second Plenary Council in 1991? We hope so and we sincerely hope you haven’t lost your willingness to “hunger and thirst for justice.” You well know that no major social change will come about in our country without organized popular pressure from below. Also, no serious thrust to become the Church of the Poor will take place unless you push us in that direction.

What will it take to organize this popular pressure from below? To organize farmers into a large democratic, non-violent movement for a truly valuable land reform, for example. How many farmers must be organized? One million? Why not? The Federation of Free Farmers on the eve of the declaration of martial law had some 300,000 members and was growing rapidly. There are many more farmers now and just as much suffering.

We ask the same question of all downtrodden groups—tribal people, fishermen, workers, urban poor, farmers: What will it take to organize yourselves?

We will give whatever is in our power to give in terms of moral support, funds and training resources. We will recruit idealistic young people and professionals to work alongside you. We will lobby for you as we always have, and we will not hesitate to break with the powerful who resist your efforts to secure your human rights. We will preach the Gospel in the liberating way Jesus did in Luke 4:18-19: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to free the oppressed and to proclaim the Lord’s year of mercy.”

May the Lord bless all of us.

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

©Copyright 2001-2008 INQUIRER.net, An Inquirer Company

Cardinal Rosales marks feast of the Holy Family with the poor

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

Cardinal Rosales marks feast of the Holy Family with the poor

30 December 2007. Instead of the usual mass at the Manila Cathedral, Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales today chose to join hundreds of poor Metro Manila families as the Catholic Church commemorates the feast of the Holy Family.

The first Sunday after Christmas, on the liturgical calendar, celebrates the Holy Family. Pope Leo XIII instituted this feast in 1892, encouraging societies honoring the Holy Family to be established everywhere.

Urban Poor Associates (UPA), an NGO working with the poor families, invited Cardinal Rosales to visit shanties of poor families and say Mass in a vacant lot along Osmeña Highway, next to a community along Paco Estero in Barangay 734, Manila.

“Ayon sa ebanghelyo ngayon, ang Banal na Pamilya, sina Jesus, Jose at Maria ay dumanas ng paglilipat-lipat, ng kahirapan, ng pagod, gutom, at banta sa kanilang buhay. Ito ay kahalintulad na karanasan para sa marami sa ating maralitang pamilya,” said Ted Añana, UPA deputy coordinator.

Añana recalled how a violent demolition hurt scores of residents living under the Osmeña Bridge and displaced some 54 urban poor families. “Dito mismo sa lugar na ito naganap ang matinding mga pahirap at pagsubok sa mga maralitang pamilya. Noong nakaraang Pebrero ng taong ito dumagsa dito sa lugar na ito ang halos 200 na mga demolisyon crew ng Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) kasama ang mga pulis at mga armadong sibilyan. Nakiusap tayo, nilabas natin ang ating mga imahen ng Santo Niño at iba pang banal na estatwa. Ngunit habang nagaganap ang isang pag-uusap sa pagitan ng ilang mga opisyales ng pamahalaan at mga lider natin biglang naganap ang demolisyon. Naging marahas ang demolisyon dahil di man lang binigyan ng panahon ang mga tao upang makapaghakot ng mga gamit.”

Facing a “cloudy” new year due to fear of massive forced evictions, various people’s organizations wrote a letter to the Cardinal asking him to arrange a meeting with the President.

“Marami sa amin na naninirahan sa mga estero at tabing riles ang nakatanggap na ng abiso na pagdating ng bagong taon, sisimulan na ang malawakang demolisyon ng aming mga tahanan. Kami po ay hindi tutol sa mga proyekto ng ating pamahalaan na may kaugnayan sa pagpapaunlad ng ating bansa. Ang aming kahilingan ay sundin ang batas ukol sa demolisyon at makataong relokasyon. Napatunayan sa mga demolisyon nitong taong ito at mga nakaraang taon na hindi po ito sinusunod ng ating pamahalaan,” the poor people told the Cardinal.

“Kaya kami po ay muling humihingi sa inyong tulong. Kung maari po sana, magpatawag po kayo ng isang pulong kay Pangulong Gloria Macapagal Arroyo na ang pag-uusapan ay ang isyu ng demolisyon at relokasyon. At kung maaari’y, mangyari ito sa buwan ng Enero,” the letter read.

Lack of adequate housing highlights a key concern for Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) this year in a Pastoral Statement. "Any person or family that, without any direct fault on his or her own, does not have suitable housing is the victim of an injustice.” -30-


Feast of Holy Family marked today with mass