PRESS RELEASE I July 02, 2011
Public opinion sided with Mayor Sara Duterte for punching a court sheriff and shutting off an eruption of violence between angry urban residents and hundreds of demolition and policemen in Davao City yesterday. Some 217 families living in a property claimed by a businessman are due to be evicted by an order from a regional trial court, while Duterte who came from a relief operation for flashflood victims rushed to the scene and interceded. She knew the residents, who were already on-guard armed with improvised sling-propelled darts and other hard objects will not give up their shanties without a fight.
Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (KADAMAY), a militant urban poor group commends the action of Duterte for siding with the urban poor, unlike what most city mayors and local officials would have done in same cases of demolition. “She is a human right defender in the case of impending a court oder that will leave hundreds of children homeless, and not an offender,” remarks Carlito Badion, KADAMAY National Vice Chair and lead convenor of Alyansa Kontra Demolisyon (AKD). “More casualties would have happened had it not for the punches.”
In the course of attempts to violently demolish the community, scores were wounded, including Corazon Espinoza, spokesperson of the urban poor women’s group SAMAKANA, 10 residents and a 12-year-old girl. Sheena Duazo, KADAMAY Davao deputy secretary-general calls the volent demolition, “inhumane and describes the current state of urban poor under the Aquino administration: neglected, homeless and threatened with violence.”
“The first year of the Aquino administration is marked by barricades and militant protests of thousands of urban poor residents defending their homes. Aquino seems to consent violent demolition of homes, and apparently ignores the responsibility of the government to provide decent housing programs for the people,'' adds Badion.
No question of human right violation for countless violent demolitions
According to AKD, in the Metro Manila alone, not less than 7,000 familes have lost their homes since Aquino assumed his post due to development projects under the Public-Private Partnership program. Some 4,000 families from North Triangle in Quezon City were thrown to far-flung relocation site in Montalban, Rizal to give way to an Ayala-funded, World Bank-proposed Quezon City Central Business District. Some 20,000 families will lose their homes upon completion of the said project.
“P-Noy is no less than big businessmen who look at our shanties as eye sores and urban poor as the dirts of society,” according to Badion citing Aquino's massive plan to relocate the almost half-a-million urban poor familes living in Metro Manila to the nearby provinces. “He is ignorant if not consenting the conditions in relocation areas where residents clamor for livelihood and basic services,” says the urban poor leader who is a relocatee himself from Kasiglahan Village in Montalban.
“Of the 4,000 families who have relocated from North Triangle, almost half of them came back to their old communities primarily due to lack of livelihood programs from the government. A number of children have died in the relocation areas, most have stopped schooling. Noone is made accountable for this gross human right violation,”
More demolitions ahead under Aquino administration
Aquino have already lost much of support from the urban poor sector in the first year of his career. He receives the lowest satisfactory rating among the Classes D and E according to a recent survey,
More demolitions of urban poor communities are expected in major cities nationwide as Aquino is providing a stable and more profitable environment for big business under his newly launched Philippine Development Plan. “P-noy will have to think twice of his inactions for every demoliton will surely be met by fierce resistance,” Badion warns.
“Chronic unemployment and stripping of livelihood as in the case of kuliglig drivers and sidewalk vendors, constant price hikes and relinquishing of social services to the private sector are additional problems that pose a big threat in the coming years of P-noy in office unless given immediate remedy.
“It's the urban poor that had dismantled two presidents in the past, and had caused a huge traffic jam when angry residents baricaded EDSA to stop a demolition last year,” Badion adds.
Reference: Carlito Badion, KADAMAY National Vice Chair (0949-4373717)
Sheena Duazo, KADAMAY Davao Deputy Secretary-General (0949-6270377)
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