Commentary : The zoo needs you
By Denis Murphy
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Posted date: March 18, 2010
CHANCES ARE CHILDREN WHO SPEND AN AFternoon at the Manila Zoo will come home very disappointed. The animals they see there are not those they have seen on TV. The TV tigers, lions, rhinos, hippos, leopards and gorillas roared, threatened and frightened them. The animals in the Manila Zoo, with a few exceptions, sleep, huddle in corners or look at people accusingly as if to say, “Look at what you’ve done to us.” They don’t awe, amuse or frighten anyone.
If we are not careful to improve our zoos, we may raise a generation of young people who know only malls and have no interest in the beauty and mystery of animals and nature. What concern for the environment can we expect in a country if this interest is missing? The battle between the mall and the zoo for the soul of children may be the major struggle of the century.
It’s a sad experience to walk past the big-cat enclosures in the zoo. A number are empty as if the last representative of that specie has passed away. There is no lion, for example. In other enclosures it’s almost impossible to find the animal. We finally found the tiger lying or hiding motionless in a rundown lean-to that looked like the tiger had built it himself. We couldn’t make out his color or even where his head was. What child will be inspired by that sight?
Even the monkeys lie down on the job. They don’t run around and climb over things and tease one another as monkeys, especially young monkeys, usually do. There’s no one laughing at them. Did you ever imagine monkeys that weren’t funny?
The crocodiles lie covered with dirt on bare concrete, instead of sweeping back and forth menacingly in the water.
It’s sad to see that there is only one representative for some species. There is one zebra, all alone, far from Africa. There is one poor hippo, all alone, so sad she doesn’t worry about her weight anymore. And there’s a female elephant who lives just inside the main entrance. Every once in a while she appears from within the ruins where she lives, and walks around her enclosure hoping, it seems, that things have changed, that the bad times are over. Halfway through her walk she realizes that nothing has changed, and she hurries away.
Water would make a big difference. It’s sad to see the animals in dirty cages. Manila has just had its worst floods in 40 years; there must be water nearby. If the cages and animals were cleaned with water, and there were pools in the enclosures where the animals could relax from the heat, and water was regularly sprayed on the pathways and gardens, the zoo would seem altogether different.
We are punishing the animals and I suspect the children know that. The bad condition affects the way the animals act. The ostriches, for example, race back and forth in their small enclosure with looks of terror on their faces. They don’t seem to know anymore where they are.
Still there are good attractions: the birds, for one, the white and multi colored peacocks who bring an “ah” from the crowd when they spread out their tails; the sea eagles high up on the top branches, keeping an eye on everything; the storks and cranes walking around with their long bills down on their chests, as if figuring out some complicated problem, and taking long steps to avoid the pooh on the ground.
Is it a matter of money, or is it that no one cares? There are no signs on many cages. There was no one in the information booth even on the Sunday after Christmas when the zoo was crowded. There could be story tellers for the children, and young actors and actresses to put on skits about animals and tell the children the old animal tales from around the world.
There is one attempt to liven up the zoo life, but it’s hard to judge if it is successful. There is a so called “wishing croc” in one of the cages and people are encouraged to throw in coins and make a wish. The big croc doesn’t seem to notice. People throw the coins and some land on the croc’s back. There’s the problem: Who will go in and get the coins, especially those on the back of the crocodile? It must be 10-12 feet long with teeth like spikes along the side of its mouth.
Money is needed, but wouldn’t people and children contribute if some group of young people made the zoo their project?
Unless we want to hand our children over now to the bondage of the malls, we should do something to improve the best alternative: our zoos and parks.
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/20100318-259527/The-zoo-needs-you
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Monday, March 08, 2010
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
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
Friday, March 05, 2010
Noynoy Aquino, Mar Roxas to Sign Covenant with the Urban Poor in Tondo
** NEWS RELEASE *** NEWS RELEASE *** NEWS RELEASE ***
For Immediate Release on 05 March 2010. Senators Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and Mar Roxas, the leading candidates in the upcoming polls, will be signing a covenant with the urban poor Saturday, March 6, at the Del Pan Sports Complex, Tondo, Manila.
The covenant is the list of issues submitted to them by the urban poor and housing rights organizations including Urban Poor Associates (UPA), Community Organizers Multiversity (COM), Community Organization of the Philippine Enterprise Foundation (COPE) and UP-All (Urban Poor Alliance).
Before a crowd of ten thousand urban poor people from different parts of Metro Manila, the candidates will promise to carry out the provisions of the covenant if elected.
UPA project coordinator Alice Murphy said, “The signing of the covenant with a leading presidential candidate will be the first in the history of the Philippine Republic. This signifies the candidates’ support of the urban poor and can lead to genuine change in how the government treats the urban poor sector when and if the two assume positions after election.”
The Covenant puts an end to forced eviction. It will not allow any public or private authority to evict families and leave them homeless in the street as is rampantly practiced in the country. It pushes for decent relocation with quality housing, adequate basic services and sustainable livelihood support.
It also calls for more land proclamations and upgrading; more Community Mortgage Programs; doubling of education and health budgets that prioritize poor communities; creation of public works that can generate substantial numbers of jobs for poor people; piped water and legal electricity connections for all poor areas; increase in the housing budget and the extension of land tenure security by all means possible.
“We will be very thankful to Sen. Noynoy and Sen. Mar for signing the covenant. The gesture will be greatly appreciated. More than that, it will gives us, the urban poor, hope in a better future for our children without fear that the new administration will oppress us. Definitely, thousands of urban poor will cast votes in their favor,” said Jeorgie Tenolete President of Baseco Kabalikat and member of Koalisyon ng mga Organisadong Samahan sa Maynila (KOSMA).
The Covenant includes a post-Ondoy rehabilitation program. (Typhoon Ondoy was a cause of the government demolitions of informal settlers living along esteros, coasts, and riversides.) The rehabilitation program identifies remedies that do not require demolition and eviction as it searches for new ways to extend land tenure security to the poor, so they can live and work in the cities.
Part of the Covenant is the appointment of reform-minded persons to head shelter government agencies. The urban poor believe that if the appointed persons in HUDCC or NHA have really a heart for the poor the agencies will be more responsive, efficient, and effective in delivering housing services to the poor families.
Alice Murphy concluded, “We at UPA (Urban Poor Associates) have been fighting for the rights of the poor for the past 30 years. The signing of this covenant might begin to end the long and painful struggles of the poor to alleviate their sad living condition. We have witnessed indiscriminate demolitions and evictions in urban poor communities. In these challenging times, we see hope in the persons of Senators Aquino and Roxas”.
-30-
For Immediate Release on 05 March 2010. Senators Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and Mar Roxas, the leading candidates in the upcoming polls, will be signing a covenant with the urban poor Saturday, March 6, at the Del Pan Sports Complex, Tondo, Manila.
The covenant is the list of issues submitted to them by the urban poor and housing rights organizations including Urban Poor Associates (UPA), Community Organizers Multiversity (COM), Community Organization of the Philippine Enterprise Foundation (COPE) and UP-All (Urban Poor Alliance).
Before a crowd of ten thousand urban poor people from different parts of Metro Manila, the candidates will promise to carry out the provisions of the covenant if elected.
UPA project coordinator Alice Murphy said, “The signing of the covenant with a leading presidential candidate will be the first in the history of the Philippine Republic. This signifies the candidates’ support of the urban poor and can lead to genuine change in how the government treats the urban poor sector when and if the two assume positions after election.”
The Covenant puts an end to forced eviction. It will not allow any public or private authority to evict families and leave them homeless in the street as is rampantly practiced in the country. It pushes for decent relocation with quality housing, adequate basic services and sustainable livelihood support.
It also calls for more land proclamations and upgrading; more Community Mortgage Programs; doubling of education and health budgets that prioritize poor communities; creation of public works that can generate substantial numbers of jobs for poor people; piped water and legal electricity connections for all poor areas; increase in the housing budget and the extension of land tenure security by all means possible.
“We will be very thankful to Sen. Noynoy and Sen. Mar for signing the covenant. The gesture will be greatly appreciated. More than that, it will gives us, the urban poor, hope in a better future for our children without fear that the new administration will oppress us. Definitely, thousands of urban poor will cast votes in their favor,” said Jeorgie Tenolete President of Baseco Kabalikat and member of Koalisyon ng mga Organisadong Samahan sa Maynila (KOSMA).
The Covenant includes a post-Ondoy rehabilitation program. (Typhoon Ondoy was a cause of the government demolitions of informal settlers living along esteros, coasts, and riversides.) The rehabilitation program identifies remedies that do not require demolition and eviction as it searches for new ways to extend land tenure security to the poor, so they can live and work in the cities.
Part of the Covenant is the appointment of reform-minded persons to head shelter government agencies. The urban poor believe that if the appointed persons in HUDCC or NHA have really a heart for the poor the agencies will be more responsive, efficient, and effective in delivering housing services to the poor families.
Alice Murphy concluded, “We at UPA (Urban Poor Associates) have been fighting for the rights of the poor for the past 30 years. The signing of this covenant might begin to end the long and painful struggles of the poor to alleviate their sad living condition. We have witnessed indiscriminate demolitions and evictions in urban poor communities. In these challenging times, we see hope in the persons of Senators Aquino and Roxas”.
-30-
Monday, March 01, 2010
Media Advisory: Covenant Signing between Senators Noynoy Aquino, Mar Roxas and the Urban Poor
File Photo: Senators Noynoy Aquino and Mar Roxas during a meeting with urban poor settlers in Baseco, Port Area, Manila on Sept. 7, 2008.
Dear Friends,
It is our great pleasure to invite you to the Covenant Signing of the Urban Poor and Senators Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino and Mar Roxas.
The signing will be held in the Del Pan Sports Complex, Tondo, Manila on Saturday, March 6 at 3:00 to 6:00PM.
The candidate will sign their agreement to the list of issues submitted to them by the urban poor and NGOs. The candidates promise to carry out the provisions of the covenant if elected.
The Covenant calls for: an end to forced evictions; more land proclamations and upgrading; more Community Mortgage Programs; better schools and health service (a doubling of the budget for these matters); creation of public works jobs for the poor; piped water and legal electricity for all poor areas; an increase in the housing budget and the extension of land tenure security by all means possible.
In addition to the signing by Noynoy, Mar and the people, there will be skits, singing, and talks by the two candidates and Mayor Alfredo Lim.
A crowd of 5,000 to 10,000 urban poor people is expected.
Please come.
COVENANT SIGNING
BETWEEN NOYNOY AQUINO AND MAR ROXAS
AND THE URBAN POOR
March 6, 2010 / 3:00 to 6:00PM
Del Pan Sports Complex
Tondo, Manila
Program
National Anthem
Opening Prayer
Introduction of Participants & Special Guests
Isang Dula
Special Performance - Lolita Carbon (Vocalist of Asin)
Reading of the Covenant
Special Performance - Juana Change
Response from Senators Noynoy Aquino and Mar Roxas
Signing of the Covenant
Turn-Over of Piso-Piso Para sa Pagbabago coin bin
Final Remarks from Mayor Alfredo Lim
Final Blessing - Rev. Fr. Hector Suano
Goodbyes, Thank you’s
Snacks
Thursday, February 25, 2010
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-
Monday, February 22, 2010
Media Advisory: Thirty-hour Pilgrimage with Fr. Robert Reyes
Lakbay Dalangin
Hanapin at Palaganapin ang Liwanag
Kariton ni Maria, Kariton ng Mahirap
February 24 (Wednesday 8am) to February 25 (Thursday 2pm)
Seek and Spread the Light
I. Rationale:
Questions often asked but what are the answers?
What went wrong after the two EDSAs? What happened after the so-called People Power Revolution? Why didn’t power remain with the people? Why did power remain in the hands of a jealous and selfish elite? Why have people remained poor; divided; shallow; etc. What and where is the problem? What structures/systems/institutions perpetuate the problem? What kind of leaders benefit from and preserve the current social Structures/systems, i.e. the Status Quo? Who are they? (They will be known by their track records.)What laws are good as far as the common and ecological good is concerned? What laws are against the common and ecological good; against the people, particularly the poor? Are elections the answer to the continual disempowerment of the people? What kind of politics will empower our people? What kind of spirituality is needed to empower and lead people from apathy, lack of self-confidence; dependency; personality/showbiz orientation; etc? What kind of spirit or vision will dispel the cynicism and encourage faith and hope, a re-kindling of the “light within” everyone, the power of goodness, love and compassion?
The answer clearly lies in the fact that political and societal structures and leaders disempower the poor. The poor comprise various sectors: 1) Urban Poor; 2) Workers; 3) Farmers; 4) Overseas Filipino Workers and their families; 5) Drivers (taxi, jeepney, bus; 6) Street sweepers; 7) Garbage collectors; etc.
The question is fundamentally an issue of disempowerment. What was known as People Power was a short-lived celebration of a mélange of sectors fighting for a common cause: the middle class; church; business; students leading with the poor walking or following somewhere behind. EDSA Dos was more or less a resurrection of the same mélange of forces: with Cardinal Sin once again taking the lead were students; business; religious groups and once again the middle class. Both EDSA One and Dos ended with the military shifting sides: Enrile and Ramos then and Angelo Reyes et al in EDSA Dos.
An interesting combination of politicians and the poor came together against GMA and mounted what they insisted was the People Power of the Poor called EDSA Tres.
In all of the attempts at change, the poor are either used or sidelined with a sector of the usual economic-political elite taking over. From Cory to Gloria, we may ask which government was truly pro-poor and pro-people? If all the governments after Marcos truly addressed the needs and concerns of the poor and the people in general, wouldn’t we then be much better off today? But why are the poor getting poorer and poorer from administration to administration? Isn’t the answer so glaringly clear? Elitist democracy which does nothing more than pay lip service to the poor has remained and grown bigger and uglier each time.
Where are the leaders who truly journey with the poor, before, during and most especially after elections?
Who are the leaders who have consistently listened, dialogued and worked with the poor towards realistic and effective solutions to their nagging problems?
Most leaders seem only interested in occupying and exploiting their position. Leading and serving are the least of their concern. Few of them fit John Quincy Adams description: “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, or become more, you are a leader.”
II. Walk, Talk and Work with The Poor
February 24 to 25, A Thirty Hour Walk with the Poor
February 25, 1986, twenty four years ago, after four days of peaceful struggle, the Filipino people wore out a sick and fading dictator to reclaim their freedom. In the last twenty four years, after four presidents (Cory;FVR; Erap; GMA) the democracy supposedly restored has progressively and systematically degenerated into its present form. From administration to administration, promises were made to dialogue and work with the poor on their problems. So little has happened to realize an organic relationship between government and people, most especially the poor.
In a few months the National Elections will allow us to change our leaders. But who among the candidates will bring in genuine and profound change? Who among the candidates will truly champion the needs and issues of the poor? Will the various government agencies do their work, especially COMELEC? Will the various institutions which have the resources be vigilant and ready to take the appropriate action? Will every sector; every individual guard the ballots and preserve the sanctity of the electoral process?
Twenty four years later, EDSA has all but lost its value and relevance. Betrayal seems the most appropriate explanation for its failure. We need to re-learn how lessons are learned thru:
1) Remembrance (Returning to Life-giving Experiences);
2) Repetition (Meaningful and Creative Commemoration of Experiences);
3) Reflection (Looking into one’s present life and relating it to the lessons of the life-giving experience);
4) Renewal (Looking at one’s weaknesses; inconsistencies and contradictions and making genuine and sustained efforts to change, convert oneself.) and
5) Realization (Making the lessons real,visible and fruitful in one’s life).
Thus, we of Kubol Pagasa offer this thirty hour Pilgrimage to seek and spread the Light (Lakbay Dalangin, Palaganapin ang Liwanag). We offer this sacrifice in order to remember; repeat; reflect; renew and realize the lessons; values and spirit of EDSA.
Route:
Date Time Location
2-24 8:00 a.m R10 Navotas
9:00 a.m. Baseco
9:30 a.m. DPWH
10:00 a.m. Manila Cathedral
10:30a.m Mass: Comelec
12:00 N CBCP
1:00 p.m. Supreme Court
2:00 p.m. Malacanang, Mendiola
3:00 p.m. Our Lady of Loreto, Sampaloc
Cardinal Sin Retirement Home for Priests
4:00p.m . Quiapo Mosque
5:00p.m. Church of the Nazarene, Quiapo
8:00p.m. Diocese of Cubao, Lantana Street
9:00p.m. OLPH, 13th Avenue, Cubao
10:00 p.m. TOLP, 18th Avenue, Cubao
11:00 p.m. OLMMP, Proj. 4; Escopa
Feb. 25 1:00a.m. Christ the King, Green Meadows (pause)
3:00 a.m. Sta. Clara, Poor Clares
4:00a.m. San Jose Seminary, Ateneo,Katipunan
5:00 a.m. Church of Holy Sacrifice, UP Diliman
7:00a.m. Immaculate Heart of Mary, Claret
8:00a.m. DAR/DA/DENR/NHA
9:00a.m. PAO, East Avenue
10:00a.m. Quezon City Jail
11:00a.m. Camp Crame
12:00Noon Edsa Shrine; People Power Monument
2:00p.m. Araneta Coliseum
n.b. I have been away from the Diocese of Cubao for the last four years (Feb 2006 to July 2010). The pilgrimage is also my own personal re-learning (Remembrance; Repetition; Reflection; Renewal; Realization) of the lessons of my personhood; citizenship and priesthood. On February 24 I will be fifty five years old. On March 18 I will be twenty eight years a priest. I will retrace my human and priestly itinerary within the thirty hours: i.e. R10 Navotas, nearby is Malabon where I grew up; Manila Cathedral (where I was ordained a priest on March 18, 1982); Our Lady of Loreto Church (my first assignment April 1982); Our Lady of Perpetual Help (my second assignment, May 1982); Transfiguration of Our Lord Parish, Murphy (my first assignment as Parish priest, 1992-1996); Church of the Holy Sacrifice, UP, Diliman (my second assignment as parish priest, 1996-2993); Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal (my third assignment as parish priest, 2003-2005); Immaculate Conception Cathedral, Lantana (the Seat of my bishop Honesto Ongtioco). I hope to pray with my brother priests and bishop in their respective parishes and offices.
I look forward to visiting the retired priests of Cardinal Sin Retirement Home for Priest, especially Msgr. Montemayor who has requested that I visit them more often. The pilgrimage will also pass through urban poor communities where I have worked. Here too, I shall pray with and for the poor who have enriched and deepened my life both as priest and Filipino.
The pilgrimage will pass through government offices which I have continually engaged throughout my life, striving to make them serve and not betray God and the people to whom they owe allegiance. Significantly, the pilgrimage will pass through the Golden Mosque of Quiapo. Muslim friends will wait for me here and join me at prayer for better Christian-Muslim ties. I have learned to journey with our Muslim brothers and sisters since 1996 when I began working with the Movement for Muslim-Christian Dialogue.
This is my humble contribution to the commemoration of EDSA. It is also my prayer engaging body, mind and spirit that in the coming May 10, 2010 Elections we will act according to what we have learned so that the Light will finally Shine and Free us from all that enslaves and brings us all down.
The pilgrimage is also a thanksgiving for all the blessings that I have received. The Kariton ni Maria is now more than ten years. Thank you Tess and Jay Daza for repairing and restoring the Kariton. Thank you Mary Gomez for the new statue of the Lady of Fatima. I thank Bishop Pedro Arigo in particular for accepting me as a guest priest in the Apostolic Vicariate of Palawan. I look back and thank all the bishops, priests and religious with whom I have worked. I thank God for my Kubol Pagasa community. I thank God for the good people of China and Hong Kong who have opened their homes to me. And last but not least, there are my parents Carlos and Naty who in spite of my unorthodox and sometimes “problematic” ways continue to support me and my ministry. God has planted the Light of faith in all of us. It is this Light that shines in spite and often because of the darkness. It is toward this Light that the Kariton ni Maria will always journey. It is toward this Light that we will all journey until the day that It embraces us forever.
Fr. Roberto P. Reyes
Kubol Pagasa
February 21, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
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
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
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
Rehabilitating riverside settlements
Inquirer Opinion / Columns
Commentary : Rehabilitating riverside settlements
By Anna Marie Karaos
Institute On Church And Social Issues
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Posted date: December 29, 2009
THREE months after storm “Ondoy” wreaked havoc on Metro Manila, a workable solution has yet to be found for rehabilitating the riverside settlements whose inhabitants suffered the brunt of the floods. The only solution government has put forward so far is to prohibit the informal settlers from returning to their riverside residences and to accelerate the construction of off-city resettlement sites.
But informal settlers have re-established themselves in the river easements in the absence of alternative places where Metro Manila’s workers can find affordable housing close to their sources of jobs and livelihood. Why does government insist on relying on a tired, ineffectual policy? How rational can it be to do same thing over and over again and expect a different result?
Urban planners claim that Manila lost a golden opportunity to re-plan and rebuild itself after the city was destroyed during World War II. The danger of missing on another opportunity to put things right looms again if public authorities fail to come up with new land policies and redevelopment approaches in response to the wake-up call delivered by Ondoy.
How we frame the problem determines what solutions we will find and where we will look for them. If the problem is simply understood as how and where to provide permanent housing for the 80,000 families living on the easements of Metro Manila’s rivers and waterways, resettlement would seem logical. However, urban poverty specialists contend that the real problem is how to preserve the fragile access poor people have to the advantages offered by cities, principally jobs and services essential for survival and upward mobility like health and education. They argue that living in cities is the best self-help strategy poor people have devised to overcome poverty and therefore government policies should be designed in ways that would protect poor people’s access to the benefits of living in cities.
If we accept that the old solution does not work, and by this I mean specifically large-scale off-city resettlement, shouldn’t we begin thinking differently about the “problem” of informal settlements?
As a start, I propose two new ways of thinking.
My first proposition is that finding a solution to rehabilitating the riverside communities cannot be divorced from a city-wide, even nation-wide, reform of urban land policy. We should begin to think not just land use or land management but land governance. Land governance is about linking decisions on the allocation and use of land to social needs and political processes. Land is a finite and social resource that should be harnessed to meet social needs and purposes. Determining what these needs and purposes are involves a political process. If we claim we are a democracy, this political process needs to be inclusive. Decision-making on land uses and what social needs to prioritize must be inclusive both in process and in outcome. When more than half a million Metro Manila families live in slums or informal settlements without legal tenure and 80,000 of them have to live on river easements, there is no land governance. Governance has clearly failed to be inclusive in its outcome.
How does government plan to use the land resources that it still controls? What land laws and policies would be needed to channel private and public land to socially desirable uses? Are these questions being asked at all? Cities are densifying and land prices keep rising. The distribution of urban space will increasingly become more inequitable. Is anyone paying any attention to this problematic scenario? What tenure systems should we encourage to make housing affordable to the greater number of urban residents? Should we insist on the disposition of lands through titling of individual plots? Or can other tenure systems be promoted such as community land trusts, land use rights, rental housing, community leases and usufruct arrangements on private and government-owned lands? These tenure systems have the advantage of providing legal access to land without a heavy financial burden on poor users. The key is giving poor people legal access to urban space, not providing land titles.
What about multi-story housing for urban poor residents? A poor country like Sri Lanka has made it work through land sharing and cross-subsidy schemes.
My second proposition is that poor people are the best resource for finding a solution to making riverside rehabilitation sustainable. In Surabaya and Bangkok, the development of riverside settlements was negotiated successfully by the informal dwellers with their city governments. Official policy shifted from resettlement to redevelopment through the organization of the riverside communities which made a commitment and a plan to upgrade their homes, clear space for riverside roads, install septic tanks and keep the rivers clean. The government took responsibility for building the roads, dredging the rivers and collecting the accumulated waste from the riverbeds. Many riverside communities in Metro Manila have capable organizations which can easily replicate this strategy with the support of their local governments.
We would do well to heed the call of Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, who said in a recent pastoral letter: “It is not enough to simply order people off the waterways. A deep restructuring of our society is called for, starting in the present crisis with urban land policy.” The Manila archbishop presented concrete proposals, including urban land reform, a follow-through on presidential land proclamations, taxation of idle lands and a moratorium on eviction for as long as humane and adequate relocation cannot be provided. He reminded us, in the words of the psalmist, that “unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.”
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20091229-244576/Rehabilitating-riverside-settlements
©Copyright 2001-2009 INQUIRER.net, An Inquirer Company
Monday, December 21, 2009
The lesser gifts
Inquirer Opinion / Columns
Commentary : The lesser gifts
By Denis Murphy
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Posted date: December 20, 2009
CAN we appreciate the great gift of Christmas if we fail to appreciate the hundreds of more ordinary gifts surrounding us every day?
Every child knows his or her name, for example, but there are many old men and women who no longer know their names or what they have done in life, or don’t remember whom they married, or their children’s faces. They would give the world to know themselves once again. An old Jesuit friend told me that when he wakes each morning, he thanks God for another day of life and another day of knowing who he is.
Water is something I, like most people, took for granted, until I went once with a reporter of Christian Aid to visit women along the R-10 road in Tondo. They had just managed to have metered water brought into their community. It cost only a third of what water once cost there. The reporter asked the women if the water had changed their lives. What a foolish question, I thought. How could water change a life? Then the women started talking.
“I can afford to shower every day now,” a woman said. “I feel clean for the first time in years.”
“Our house no longer smells. We take care of the toilet,” another woman told us.
Other comments came one after the other: “Now we can really wash the children and the vegetables.” “We can clean the house. Everything smells nice.” “We can clean the drain in front of the house.”
Finally a woman pointed to several drums of water that were stored near the water outlet. “We’re ready in case of fire. I can sleep at night,” she said.
Two years ago we had finished the “Panunuluyan of the Urban Poor” Mass with Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales and it was time for the people, especially the children, to eat. A 7- or 8-year-old girl, dressed as one of Santa’s helpers, brought her styrofoam lunch box over to the cathedral steps where I was sitting and squatted down to eat. She carefully opened the box and when she saw what was inside, she pulled back with her hands in the air, as if she had seen something priceless. She looked around to share her excitement.
“Wow!” she said out loud.
I went closer. In the box were two large golden brown pieces of Jollibee fried chicken.
It was probably the first time she ever had two pieces of chicken for herself. At Jollibee, two pieces of chicken cost P128, this is just about what the average urban poor family of five spends for its food in a day. Most poor children never have enough to eat.
In 1980, I visited the Zoto families who were moved from Tondo to the Dagat-Dagatan relocation site in Navotas. The people had struggled for 10 years to get good in-city relocation. I found one of our older leaders sitting in the 96-sq m lot the government had given her. I asked her how she liked her new home. Her old face was beaming. “I feel like I’m in paradise,” she told me.
On another level of experience altogether was the young woman with her parents I saw on the Oprah show some weeks ago. The young woman’s legs were fused at birth that they formed what was described on the program as a “mermaid’s tail.” The young woman can never have children or walk or even sit up without support, yet she is feisty and always smiling. She has finished college and is deciding what profession she will enter. She has no doubt she will succeed. She said she knows she can never have children, but she will adopt a child. She was wonderful on the show. But just as wonderful were the mother and father, who, while their girl talked, looked at her with enormous pride, love and gratitude. Meister Eckhart, a Medieval German mystic, used to say, “At least be grateful,” as if gratitude, like that of this father and mother, was the key to life’s riches.
There is an experience many priests have had, which brings us close to the Christmas mystery. They are asked to give communion to someone, adult or child, who is obviously and seriously troubled mentally. We believe some level of understanding is needed to receive communion, but who is to decide what that level is? Most priests I know give communion to the persons, believing that God who made them knows how to reach them in their shadows. Isn’t it at Christmas that God comes to this fallen race with all its blindness and darkened understanding? A less hopeful, less loving God would not come.
When we are grateful for knowing our names and having a small piece of land, two pieces of chicken, metered water and a special child we love, we are almost ready for Christmas.
Denis Murphy works with the Urban Poor Associates. His email address is upa@pldtdsl.net.
©Copyright 2001-2009 INQUIRER.net, An Inquirer Company
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20091220-243183/The-lesser-gifts
Monday, December 14, 2009
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-
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-
Thursday, December 10, 2009
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)
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Urban Poor High Hopes with the New MMDA Chair
** NEWS RELEASE *** NEWS RELEASE *** NEWS RELEASE **
Urban Poor High Hopes with the New MMDA Chair
10 December 2009. 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 has high hope with the new chair of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), Secretary Oscar Inocentes.
Denis Murhpy, Executive Director of UPA said, “We are all happy that the new chair is committed to doing everything legally and through dialogues. Over the last three years, Bayani Fernando evicted thousands of families illegally that is without proper notice, consultation and resettlement. And often removed small vendors from the road or sidewalks and confiscated or destroyed their goods. If the new chair dialogues in a sincere way he will find solutions that allow the poor to survive in the city and make a living.”
UPA research team noted, that this year alone there were 28 evictions, 6 of these evictions were conducted by MMDA and ended up violent.
Last November 11, 2009, before the new chair took over, MMDA demolished shanties in Estero De La Reina. The eviction turned out badly. Women and even pregnant women were fighting the demolition team over pieces of lumber and G.I roofing. Finally 10 families left Binondo in an MMDA truck at about 4 pm with a cross section of poor people and children. They arrived at the resettlement area in Norzagaray, Bulacan at 8 p.m. because of heavy traffic. But the local barangay captain told them they couldn’t enter because they only have a trip pass which was given by the MMDA personnel. So, the people have no choice but to come back to Binondo at 11 p.m. only to sleep on the sidewalk because their houses were already destroyed.
This action of MMDA earn the ire of the urban poor and has been singled out by civil society monitoring groups as the biggest violator of housing laws. Even though no law or executive order exempts MMDA from observing just and humane demolitions and evictions as provided by UDHA, the agency has repeatedly violated the law. Families living in shanties demolished by MMDA in 2008 for its beautification and urban renewal programs were not given adequate relocation, not even temporary shelters.
In parting, Murphy said, "In cities as crowded as Calcutta, India, the government and the food vendors were able to reach an agreement about selling and eating hot food at lunchtime on the sidewalks. Everyday four million people have a hot lunch in the sidewalks of Calcutta. There is soon for the vendors on our sidewalks if MMDA will sincerely try to reach a solution with them. The new chairperson's clearing moratorium for vendors on the sidewalks and informal settlers this December is hopeful."
Task Force Anti Eviction will continue to monitor MMDA’s program to ensure that there will be no more violent and illegal evictions. The group will cleave on the word of Sec. Inocentes that he will do everything “legally” and through dialogues.
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Monday, December 07, 2009
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.
Sunday, December 06, 2009
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
Friday, November 20, 2009
COHRE condemns violent forced eviction at Baclaran Mosque
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COHRE condemns violent forced eviction at Baclaran Mosque
International human rights organisation calls for independent inquiry into killings
20 November 2009, Pasay City: The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) today strongly condemned the reported killing of three residents of the Baclaran Mosque community in Pasay City during an apparently illegal operation to forcibly evict the community from their homes on 18 November 2009. COHRE has sent a letter to President Gloria Arroyo to express its concerns and to call for an urgent independent inquiry into the incidents of 18 November 2009 as well as to hold all those responsible to account.
Dan Nicholson, Coordinator of the COHRE Asia Programme, said: “Regardless of the legality of the eviction, there can be no justification for the use of lethal weapons. The use of fire arms against protesters and the reported death of three community members points to an apparent disproportionate use of force by police forces that demonstrates a disregard for the most fundamental human rights among those who implemented the eviction”.
In its letter to President Arroyo, COHRE recalls previous attempts to forcibly and illegally remove residents from their homes, most recently in August 2009, and exposes the apparent unlawfulness of the eviction on 18 November. “It appears that authorities had no executable eviction order against the community, as they relied on an August order which, under implementing rules and regulations of the Urban Development and Housing Act (UDHA), expired after 90 days”, said Dan Nicholson.
He further expressed his strong concern that the events at Baclaran Mosque are not an isolated incident: “We are very concerned that this latest eviction is but one case that represents an ongoing culture of lack of respect for the law and human rights in the carrying out of evictions by certain authorities in Manila. In a separate forced eviction case in Pechayan, North Fairview, Quezon City in October 2009, a community leader and her son were shot dead by security guards. There can be absolutely no justification for serious injuries and deaths as a result of evictions. In fact, such incidents violate the duty of the Government of the Philippines to respect and protect the right to life under Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and point to a persistent failure of the Government of the Philippines to honour its international legal obligations.”
COHRE further pointed out that forced evictions are a violation of the right to adequate housing contained in Article 11 (1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Under the Covenant, evictions can only be carried out lawfully under exceptional circumstances, and only when a number of safeguards are followed, which include, among others, the provision of adequate alternatives to those affected and the prohibition of rendering persons homeless.
“In the case of the Baclaran Mosque community, the homes of approximately 400 families were reportedly destroyed and the proposed relocation site is rejected as inadequate to meet the community’s needs”, said Nicholson.
“We call on the authorities in the Philippines to immediately conduct an independent inquiry into the violence of 18 November and to promptly make the findings public. Those responsible for violations of Philippines’ law have to be held to account, including through criminal charges where appropriate, both in respect of the disproportionate use of force and the legality of the eviction,” he said.
“The community needs to immediately be provided with adequate shelter and emergency relief while a permanent solution that suits the community’s needs is found in consultation with them. Last but not least, compensation for injury and death as well as for material losses needs to be provided to all those affected,” he added.
-30-
For more information, contact:
Dan Nicholson; COHRE Asia and Pacific Programme Coordinator; +855.17.523.274; dan@cohre.org; hannah@cohre.org
BACKGROUND ON COHRE
The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions is an international human rights non-governmental organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with offices in Asia, Africa and the Americas. COHRE works to promote and protect the right to adequate housing, including preventing and remedying forced evictions. Together with local partner Urban Poor Associates (UPA), COHRE has worked with the Baclaran Mosque community since 2007.
COHRE condemns violent forced eviction at Baclaran Mosque
International human rights organisation calls for independent inquiry into killings
20 November 2009, Pasay City: The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) today strongly condemned the reported killing of three residents of the Baclaran Mosque community in Pasay City during an apparently illegal operation to forcibly evict the community from their homes on 18 November 2009. COHRE has sent a letter to President Gloria Arroyo to express its concerns and to call for an urgent independent inquiry into the incidents of 18 November 2009 as well as to hold all those responsible to account.
Dan Nicholson, Coordinator of the COHRE Asia Programme, said: “Regardless of the legality of the eviction, there can be no justification for the use of lethal weapons. The use of fire arms against protesters and the reported death of three community members points to an apparent disproportionate use of force by police forces that demonstrates a disregard for the most fundamental human rights among those who implemented the eviction”.
In its letter to President Arroyo, COHRE recalls previous attempts to forcibly and illegally remove residents from their homes, most recently in August 2009, and exposes the apparent unlawfulness of the eviction on 18 November. “It appears that authorities had no executable eviction order against the community, as they relied on an August order which, under implementing rules and regulations of the Urban Development and Housing Act (UDHA), expired after 90 days”, said Dan Nicholson.
He further expressed his strong concern that the events at Baclaran Mosque are not an isolated incident: “We are very concerned that this latest eviction is but one case that represents an ongoing culture of lack of respect for the law and human rights in the carrying out of evictions by certain authorities in Manila. In a separate forced eviction case in Pechayan, North Fairview, Quezon City in October 2009, a community leader and her son were shot dead by security guards. There can be absolutely no justification for serious injuries and deaths as a result of evictions. In fact, such incidents violate the duty of the Government of the Philippines to respect and protect the right to life under Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and point to a persistent failure of the Government of the Philippines to honour its international legal obligations.”
COHRE further pointed out that forced evictions are a violation of the right to adequate housing contained in Article 11 (1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Under the Covenant, evictions can only be carried out lawfully under exceptional circumstances, and only when a number of safeguards are followed, which include, among others, the provision of adequate alternatives to those affected and the prohibition of rendering persons homeless.
“In the case of the Baclaran Mosque community, the homes of approximately 400 families were reportedly destroyed and the proposed relocation site is rejected as inadequate to meet the community’s needs”, said Nicholson.
“We call on the authorities in the Philippines to immediately conduct an independent inquiry into the violence of 18 November and to promptly make the findings public. Those responsible for violations of Philippines’ law have to be held to account, including through criminal charges where appropriate, both in respect of the disproportionate use of force and the legality of the eviction,” he said.
“The community needs to immediately be provided with adequate shelter and emergency relief while a permanent solution that suits the community’s needs is found in consultation with them. Last but not least, compensation for injury and death as well as for material losses needs to be provided to all those affected,” he added.
-30-
For more information, contact:
Dan Nicholson; COHRE Asia and Pacific Programme Coordinator; +855.17.523.274; dan@cohre.org; hannah@cohre.org
BACKGROUND ON COHRE
The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions is an international human rights non-governmental organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with offices in Asia, Africa and the Americas. COHRE works to promote and protect the right to adequate housing, including preventing and remedying forced evictions. Together with local partner Urban Poor Associates (UPA), COHRE has worked with the Baclaran Mosque community since 2007.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
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-
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Demolition in Baclaran turns bloody
Monday, November 16, 2009
PASTORAL LETTER ON URBAN PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT POLICIES
PASTORAL LETTER ON URBAN PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT POLICIES
Unless the lord builds the house, those who build it labor
in pain. (PS 127, 1)
After the terrible destructions brought about by typhoon Ondoy in our metropolis, we now embark in rebuilding our lives and our cities. Life must go on. We must move on. We move now to the arduous work of rehabilitation. Let us do this not haphazardly and superficially so that we rebuild on firm foundations and the sufferings of others may not be aggravated. Let us allow ourselves to be guided by the Lord and his teachings.
On October 9, Aling Myrna and her teen-age son, residents of a community living in North Fairview, were shot to death by a private security guard as they protested the location of a fence being put up to keep them and their community “out of danger!”
Why do the thousands of people, people like Aling Myrna, cling to their homesites even in danger areas, and resist relocation to safer sites outside the city? The answer is simple. Their sources of livelihood are in the city, and there are none in far-away relocation areas. Commuting to the city from these areas would take many hours each day and would cost a very substantial part of a day’s income. Better the risks of life as an informal settler in a danger zone, they argue, than death by starvation in nice houses far away.
These, be it noted, are the people who keep the city humming. They are mainly market vendors and small tradespeople, bus and taxi drivers, washwomen and house help, janitors and construction workers, even policemen, firemen and public school teachers. They do not beg in the streets or steal food. Without them the city would come to a halt. Yet there is no legal place for them in the city.
Pope John Paul II in his encyclical “Centesimus Annus” (no. 43) is sharp and to the point on this matter.
“The obligation to earn one’s bread by the sweat of one’s brow also presumes the right to do so. A society in which this right is systematically denied, in which economic policies do not allow workers to reach satisfactory levels of employment, cannot be justified from an ethical point of view, nor can that society attain social peace.”
Behind the killing of Aling Myrna and her son lies a whole “structure of sin,”: land values which are far beyond the reach of our poor and many of the middle class, low taxes on unused land, the use of vast amounts of land for shopping malls, for upscale residential subdivisions and golf courses.
The term “structure of sin” tells us that the evil is pervasive, built into the structures of our society, something of which we are all a part. If the construction workers who build our homes and offices received wages sufficient for legal income, those homes and houses would cost far more than they do. Our newspapers would cost far more if the scavengers in Payatas who collect old paper for recycling were able to live away from the garbage and filth. Indeed, practically all that we buy or the services we use bear the mark of this sin.
It is not enough then, to simply order people off the waterways. A deep restructuring of our society is called for, starting in the present crisis with urban and land policy. To this effort of restructuring, we, the Archbishop and Bishops of Metro Manila pledge our full support. Hence we call for:
1. Urban land reform so that the poor may have the possibility to have security of tenure in our cities where their livelihood is found.
2. A moratorium on demolition of the dwellings of the poor if there is no humane relocation for them as our present laws require. Humane relocation would include accessible places of work for them.
3. A follow through of the processes to allot public lands to the poor in the areas that have been given to them by presidential declarations. Let the public lands declared by the President be developed and effectively be made available to the poor.
4. Legislations to raise taxes on properties that are idle, or to altogether expropriate them. The right to private property should not be given priority but the common good.
“Christian tradition has never recognized the right to property as absolute and untouchable. The right to private property is subordinate to the right to common use, to the fact that goods are meant for everyone. Private property is in its essence only an instrument for respecting the principle of the universal destination of goods; in the final analysis, therefore, it is not an end but a means.” (Compendium on the Social Teachings of the Church #177)
5. The swift implementations of the Clean Air Act and other environmental laws by disallowing heavy and highly pollutive industries within our cities which are densely residential and commercial. The zoning ordinances of the cities should be reviewed. Heavy industries, and not the poor should be relocated outside of our cities. If this is done, more people will move out of our cities to work in these industries.
6. In re-settling the poor and rehabilitating our cities priority should be given to the employment of the people. Informal settlers have grown in number because of lack of employment possibilities in places outside the metropolis. The “squatting” problem is not primarily a problem of housing; it is a problem of employment.
7. Let us not blame the poor in the waterways for the flooding of our cities. Let us look beyond: the unabated logging in Sierra Madre and Mt. Banahaw, mining ventures in our mountains, haphazard collection and unplanned disposal of our garbage, irresponsible city planning and development of subdivisions, just to name a few. Together let us take a hard look at our present practices and have the political will to reform them. In truth we can say that the government officials and the rich have more to do with the destruction of our environment that aggravated the recent flood than the poor!
There are many cries for reform as we experienced the unprecedented calamities of our times. We join our voices as your pastors in this call but we call for much deeper reforms that would really address and better the situation of our cities. Only when the needs of the least in our society are addressed will our society achieve true and lasting development.
Let us not lose courage. Let is heed the voice of God in the recent events. God is telling us something. We have experienced the bayanihan and damayan spirit in a remarkable degree these few weeks. This tells us that if we want to, we can work together and be concerned even to the point of sacrifice. Let us then continue to work together and be concerned to reform our ways that the environment be respected and protected and the poor be given deeper consideration so that they too may have a more generous part in the development of our cities.
Your pastors in the Lord Jesus Christ.
+ GAUDENCIO B. CARDINAL ROSALES, D.D.
Archbishop of Manila
+ BERNARDINO C. CORTEZ, D.D.
Auxiliary Bishop of Manila
http://www.rcam.org/Homilies/2009/cardinal_rosales/pastoral_letter_on_urban_planning_and_development_policies.html
+ BRODERICK S. PABILLO
Auxiliary Bishop of Manila
Congratulations to Caritas at Maralita and Ms Penelope "Jing" Lanzona
Caritas at Maralita and Ms Penelope "Jing" Lanzona were nominated finalist for the Best Public Service Radio Program and Best Public Service Radio Program Host at the 18th Golden Dove Awards of Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) held at Taal Vista Hotel in Tagaytay City on Nov. 13, 2009.
“CARITAS AT MARALITA” (literally means Love/Care for the Poor) is a one hour radio program by the people, to the people and for the people ! Aired over a Catholic but commercial radio station, VERITAS 846 KHz AM every Saturday at 1:30 – 2:30 pm and live via audio streaming at www.Veritas846.ph.. Modesty aside, this is the only radio program produced by an NGO (Urban Poor Associates) together with a Peoples Organization which made it as “FINALIST” in the Catholic Mass Media Awards for Best Public Service Radio Program. Survey made by the Kapisanan ng mga Broadcasters ng Pilipinas (KBP, an independent organization of all media practitioners in the Philippines ), this 10 yr. old program has more than eight hundred thousand (800 plus) households loyal audience in its timeslot. Keeping and adhering to quality,comprehensive and holistic presentation and offering alternatives to each topic affecting the lives of the poor has made Radio Veritas more committed to this program by giving us free airtime and even adding 1 more hour every Saturday.
This Radio Program uses the AIRWAVES in supporting and strengthening the ground works of the different Peoples Organizations, Non-Government Organizations, Civic and Religious Groups in upholding HOUSING RIGHTS which is actually provided by Philippine Law known as Urban and Development Housing Act (UDHA) but consistently violated by the government especially the office of Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA).
Banking on the power of Radio, we use this program in advocating and lobbying to our Legislators/Lawmakers in pushing legislations and enact into law that would benefit not only the urban poor but other marginalized groups on issues like Ancestral Domain, Environment, the Elderly, Gender, Women and Children and the like. Through the years we have found allies both from the Lower House and the Senate, Municipal Mayors, ordinary listeners and from our International Community. However, we also have critics and even receive threats from other government officials whom we require to be accountable for failures in delivering basic services to people.
Featuring successful, inspiring and even entertaining stories of ordinary individual, organization, communities and other popular personalities make the program even more interesting and appealing to our audience. More importantly, this radio program gives “VOICE” to the “VOICELESS” without prejudice!!!
OBJECTIVES:
1.Using the AIRWAVES in giving support and strengthening the ground works
to our campaigns to the following issues affecting the lives of the poor :
a.) Upholding Security of Tenure.
b.) No Demolition if there’s no Adequate and Humane Relocation as provided by Philippine Law (UDHA) and insisting on ON-Site or Near City Relocation.
c.) Assisting poor and marginalized communities to secure proper trainings on livelihood programs.
d.) Facilitating and providing segment on Human Rights and
Value formation programs.
2. Giving VOICE to the VOICELESS.
2. Educating and Informing the rest of the strata of our society specially the middle class which is indifferent toward the urban poor about the plight of this sector.
3. Using the power of Radio specially in asking government officials
for dialogues between Peoples Organization Leaders and Representative from Non-Government Organizations.
FORMAT : MAGAZINE
DURATION: 1 Hour
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