Anti-demolition network warns massive demolition of urban poor communities could spark series of protests in metros against pro-capitalist policies [Housing fund from P72-B stimulus seen to drive greater urban social unrest]

PRESS RELEASE l OCTOBER 17, 2011
ALYANSA KONTRA DEMOLISYON
Reference: Carlito Badion, AKD lead convener, Kadamay national vice chair (09393873736)

MANILA, Philippines—Alyansa Konta-Demolisyon (Alliance against Demolition and Eviction) warns the Aquino administration of a possible resistance among the urban poor after the Department of Budget and Management released the P72-B stimulus package to counteract the possible backlash of Europe’s debt crisis to the Philippine economy.

Carlito Badion, AKD lead convener said rather than buffering the impact of the global crisis on the people, the stimulus package might rather spur the outrage of the toiling masses. The big protest in Europe will have its counterpart in the Philippines that could be spurred by thousands of urban poor families who will lose their homes after P11.05 billion from the stimulus package are allotted for housing, relocation and resettlement, which also mean demolition of homes.

“The fund will ensure the the immediate eviction of some 106,000 families leaving in the danger areas, as well as those living in urban poor communities that are considered priority area for demolition to give way to some Public-Private Partnership projects,” Badion said.

“Other sectors including the workers, students, teachers, and government employees will be with us as each are already experiencing the effect of the privatization policies of the Aquino’ PPP. This as the pang of the Europe crisis extends its toll into the toiling masses and the people in the Philippines,” he added.

On Friday, housing czar Jejomar Binay has announced to the public its 1.5M housing unit target by 2016, an answer to the Aquino administration plan to relocate the more than half-a-million urban poor families living in Metro Manila. But AKD said such grandiose plan will only aggravate the outrage of the urban poor sector as long as the administration sticks to its standing housing policies that are deemed futile and business-oriented.

“Land developers and low-cost housing firms with their cohorts in the government housing agencies, will feast on this grandiose housing plan, as well as on the P11-B housing fund, Badion cited. “As in the case of the relocatees from North Triangle in QC, many have come back to their old community, and those who remain in the sites call for the demand of sustainable livelihood and a secure housing program.”

AKD has been calling for the abolition of the housing policies, governed by anti-poor laws including the Urban Development and Housing Act also known as Lina Law that legitimizes demolition of urban poor communities as long as residents are given notices of eviction and a measly amount of financial assistance. This, according to the network, is without accounting for the social and economic degradation inflicted on the relocatees.

“Unless the existing housing polices are abolished and replaced by more humane and service-oriented ones, families who have lost their homes and the big number who will do so in the coming days for the government’s pro-capitalist ‘development projects,’ will continue to bring their protest into the streets," Badion said.

“And as the condemnation against capitalism spreads through hundreds of cities around the globe in the coming days, the urban poor shall not only see the P11-B housing fund as another case of taxpayers’ money gone into corrupt hands. But because of the obvious preference by the Aquino administration of the big businesses over the people, the urban poor shall see that their situation is hopeless under a pro-capitalist president unless they march the street in tens of thousands," he added. ###