NEWS I August 12, 2011
QUEZON CITY – After the QC government announced its plan to liquidate the community of Sitio San Roque in North Triangle by the end of the month, residents are eager to declare their counterpart of an all-out-war against the impending demolition.
Today, they marched the stretch of Commonwealth Avenue leading to the facade of UP-Ayala Land Techno Hub, with students from nearby UP Diliman and other residents from neighboring communities. After attempting to bring down the main gate of the business center, they threw mud at its marker to further their claim that the Ayala Land, Inc (ALI) is a 'land grabber.'
ALI has entered a lease contract with the National Housing Authority who has claimed the 30-hectares parcel of land where the community of San Roque sits. ALI is expected to develop the constested land as part of the Quezon City-Central Business District (QCCBD), which a national project of the past Arroyo administration, the biggest in the country.
By its completion, QCCBD will eradicate seven communities of urban poor settlers, the human collateral pegged at not less than 25,000 families. Employees from government agencies and hospitals sitting on the 340-heactare QCCBD land (UP land occupied by the Ayala Technohub included) will face lay-off and job retrenchment.
The local government expects violence due to the fierce resistance of the residents against the project.
According to Estrelieta Bagasbas, national spokesperson of Alyansa Kontra Demolisyon (AKD), and incumbent chairperson of September 23 Movement, a local coalition of San Roque organizations, the residents are prepared to defend the community, and barricade EDSA as they did last September 23, 2010.
“We challenge PNoy and Ayala not to repeat their old mistakes for we are well-engaged in an all-out-war against their connivance to take away the land that we, without assistance from the government, have developed in years,” Bagasbas said.
Ayala, Land grabber!
The residents tagged Ayala as 'land grabber' who is also the owner of the a high-class mall near San Roque. In its construction a decade ago, Ayala had claimed houses and livelihood opportunities from some 3,000 families.
“The promise of jobs and a change of life that ALI had offered to then affected families never materialized, a proof that those big businesses only benefit the rich,” the leader added.
The same fate went to thousand of families living in the 90-hectare property of the University of the Philippines Diliman, which is now the seat of the Ayala Techno Hub, the group claimed.
By the end of August, NHA and the local government would have to pay fine to ALI for not doing its job of clearing San Roque of its inhabitants to start the land development of the area.
Same old programs
According to AKD, the anti-people character of the Aquino administration is already well-exposed, with only a year in office, as it continues to implement policies and programs that are initiated by the Arroyo administration.
“QCCBD is among the projects introduced by the past administration, including CCT, the cash dole-out program for the poor, and the faulty agrarian reform program that is CARPer. All are deemed anti-poor and derived themselves from pro-landlord and pro-capitalist socio-economic policies.
Old residents returning
After a year since the National Housing Authority has started offering relocation units to San Roque residents, thousand to families have come back to the community from the Montalban and Bulacan relocation sites. Their principal complaint is the lack of source of livelihood. “Of the around 5,000 families who have taken the relocation offer, about half have come back to San Roque,” Bagasbas cited.
“This speaks of the failure of the housing polocies and programs of the government. If these continue, we expect no significant solution to what the government calls “the squatting problem,” she said
In the days to come until the demolition day, residents gear to hold protest actions at the main office of NHA, as well as at the ALI office in Ayala.
“We will make sure PNoy will pay for the consequence of his 'paying back of gratitude' to Ayala, if the same incident last September happened again,” Bagasbas warned. Aquino had alleged received plenty of financial support from the corporation in last years presidential election campaign.
“It's the poor that should benefit from the government's 'development projects.' The president should think of ways on how to create jobs for millions of unemployed urban poor, and not ways on how to demolish our homes,” the San Roque leader said.
Reference: Carlito Badion, AKD Lead Convenor I 09393873736
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