PRESS RELEASE l 03 DECEMBER 2011
SEPTEMBER 23 MOVEMENT l KADAMAY
REFERENCE: Gloria Arellano, Kadamay national sec-gen (09213927457)
An urban poor alliance called September 23 Movement has referred the Aquino administration has so far not treated the urban poor as humans, and as as having no concept of human rights for the sector. This after the a right activist group Karapatan described Aquino as worse than Arroyo when it comes to human rights violations, while impunity prevails.
September 23 Movement is a community alliance from Sitio San Roque in North Triangle, composed of neighborhood organizations that have faced continuous threats of demolition since September 23, 2010, the infamous day of the 'Battle of EDSA' when residents clashed with NHA-hired demolition team and the police causing a 7-hour stand-off in EDSA.
Estrelieta Bagasbas, September 23 Movement chair said, 'No other presidents has attempted to violently demolish our homes except for Aquino, only four months after he assumed his office. And the threat continues until today even the Christmas season is fast approaching."
Most hostile human conditions in the relocation sites
Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay), an allied group of September 23 Movement, and has recorded three of its leaders in Metro Manila while defending their homes from the demolition team, said the number posted by Karapatan at 6,108 families accounting to those affected by the recent 'demolition rampage' of the Aquino administration is too small if it would include the families who have volunteered to demolish their homes, and deceived by the National Housing Authority to take its relocation offers.
These relocatees, according to the urban poor group, have suffered from among the most hostile human conditions in the government relocation sites in Rizal, Bulacan and Laguna.
"We have recorded cases of drug addictions, people losing their sanity, selling parts of their body and breaking up of marriages, and kids who stopped from going to school, among others that happened to thousands of families in the relocation sites. The relocatees are stripped of their right to decent livelihood programs, and an access to jobs. It is the main reason why they go back to the community where they lived in the urban centers," Gloria Arellano, Kadamay secretary-general said.
Criminalizing the urban poor
"Of the almost 6,000 families that have relocated from North Triangle to Montalban relocation sites, almost half have come back to Sitio San Roque. Other relocatees are returning to their old communities, at the same rate. As the Aquino government boasts of its massive relocation program for the half a million urban poor center in Metro Manila alone, the gross human right violations are sugarcoated and kept concealed even as the relocatees go back to their old communities in the urban centers," Arellano explained.
"Immediately as they return to the cities, the government criminalizes them as professional squatters and enforces the police and SWAT to drive them away. The recent demolition of homes along the BIR road in Quezon City that has ended up violently is an effort of the QC LGU to drive away residents who have already received relocation package from the government," Arellano added.
Personal wish
According to Bagasbas, who has lived in San Roque for almost three decades, said: "Aquino has treated us as garbage, unmindful of how our families will live as the government demolishes our homes. If I had the chance, I would demolish Aquino's home too to have him a taste of how it is to live in the street or in the relocation site."
"He couldn't even increase the wage of the workers, nor create jobs so the urban poor could eat decently, he still has the penchant for demolishing our homes. He is so naive of our condition, as if he is not human," Bagasbas ended.###
No comments:
Post a Comment