NEWS l AUGUST 28, 2011
QUEZON CITY, Philippines--As informal setter families (ISFs) in the country's richest city are in direct threats of forced eviction, with two big communities scheduled at August 31 after the 4-day long weekend, residents would expect no counterpart of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte to come to their rescue. This according to a statement released by Alyansa Kontra Demolisyon (AKD), a national alliance against demolition and eviction of urban poor settlers.
Last July 1, the much-talked about city mayor has intervened in a demolition attempt of a community in the Agdao District of Davao City, and punched a court sheriff after the officer disregarded the mayor's request for a two-hour delay for her to intervene and avoid violence from erupting.
"The case will be very different to thousands of urban poor settlers occupying the public and private spaces of Quezon City, says Carlito Badion, convener of AKD. He tags Mayor Herbert Bautista as "protector of big businessmen," and denounces the city mayor's "greed for profit."
"Mayor Bautista is geared up to maintain QC's title as the investment hub and business capital of the Philippines, at the expense of its urban poor constituents," Badion adds. According to the city's Urban Poor Affairs Office, the ISFs in QC account for 42 per cent of the population, or some 234,104 families as of August 2010 data.
24,000 urban poor families homeless due to QCCBD
One of the biggest communities in QC with impending demolition is Sitio San Roque in North Triangle. As early as February last year, NHA has started relocating residents to Montalban resettlement sites to jump start the implementation of the 22B dollar-Quezon City Central Business District (QCCBD), which will be the country's biggest and most expensive business district to rival Singapore.
The UP-AyalaLand Technohub is part of the project that by its completion will evict some 24,000 urban poor families from five communities, according to report of CONTRA-CBD, an alliance of affected residents and government employees.
The resistance of the settlers to QCCBD and the relocation program offered by the National Housing Authority has led to a 7-hour stand-off in EDSA in September last year, and a score of casualties on the side of the police and the residents.
Two days ago, another community in Brgy. Old Balara has triumphantly thwarted a demolition attempt of some 1,000 houses after residents barricaded three lanes of the Commonwealth Avenue. Residents say demolition team will return on August 31. The same deadline is given to the residents of North Triangle for yet another blow of eviction since September. Also, a big creekside community in Brgy. Damayang Lagi is scheduled to be demolished on September 1.
Slum-free QC
With the biggest poor sector in Metro Manila, the LGU considers "the magnitude of informal settler families (ISF) challenge in QC is huge, and requires the effective collaboration of not only local, but all national agencies with housing and resettlement as mandates, particularly the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council," according to an LGU housing report gathered by AKD.
QC Mayor Herbert Bautista has reportedly initiated a series of workshop with these agencies to formulate local governement-national government collaborative mechanisms and work more determinedly toward the vision of a 'Slum-free QC.'
The increasing informal settler population in QC has been encouraged inadvertedly by easy access routes to the City, from provinces andthe availability if large tracts of unsecured land, as well as small, scattered pockets of undeveloped lands, especially in the city's northern areas.
QC has created Special Task Force on Socialized Housing and Development, under the secretary to the Mayor to maintain an inventory of blighted areas within the city, conduct census survey of informal settlers, prepare development plans for the areas, identify, plan ang develop relocation sites, conduct social preparations and undertake the demolition of structures.
LGU-LGU Partnerships
In its report, QC aims to reduce the number of informal settlers through twinning arrangements with provinces and municipalities which can host new resettlement sites for QC's ISFs. In exchange for hosting this sites, the QC-LGU can assign a proportionate percentage of its internal revenue allotments to the receiving LGU.
"In the case of the North Triangle residents, this effort seems to be only in paper as to this date, almost half of the 5,000 families that NHA has relocated came back to San Roque," Badion says. "Scarcity of livelihood souces in the resettlement sites is the basic complaint. The municipal government of Rodriguez has reportedly complained about the influx of relocatees, mostly from QC."
Public-Private Partnerships
"Removing urban blight is a win-win arrangement for private companies as well, who will see their development and property values rise with the removal of slums near project areas," according to the LGU report.
"An ISF-occupied area will allow purchase at depressed values. Once an area is cleared, through the help of the QC government, the property values can rise in multiples, since many occupied areas are in strategic locations of the city," the report says.
"The coming months and years will be very blight for the urban poor of QC, as the LGU eyes for more profit and tax-earnings from big businesses," Badion says. This will be an early reality to some 70,000 families living in the priorty areas for clearing as designated by the local government including danger areas, and area for investment and priority development.
Reference: Carlito Badion, AKD Lead Convener I 09393873736
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