[‘North Triangle land priced less than half its actual value’] Kadamay calls for a probe into another possible anomalous contract entered by the Arroyo administration

PRESS RELEASE l 12 DECEMBER 2011
KALIPUNAN NG DAMAYANG MAHIHIRAP
REFERENCE: Carlito Badion, Kadamay national vice chair l 09393873736

QUEZON CITY, Philippines—Urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) asks the Department of Justice to probe into yet another anomalous joint-venture deal between the National Housing Authority (NHA) and Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI) during the Arroyo administration.

Carlito Badion, Kadamay national vice chair says, “Such contract that is worth P22 billion was sealed by virtue of ex-president Arroyo’s Executive Order 620, an order that would take away homes of not less than 24,000 urban poor families so that Quezon City Central Business District would rise at the heart of city.”

Arroyo issued EO 620 (Rationalizing and speeding up the development of the East and North Triangles, and the Veterans Memorial Area of Quezon City, as a well-planned, integrated and environmentally balanced mixed-use development model) on May 4, 2007, days before the May 2007 election and two weeks after the Arroyo government signed the $329-million National Broadband Network (NBN) deal with China's ZTE Corp.

Badion adds, “We have reports that in the said joint-venture between NHA and ALI, North Triangle land is valued at only P20,000 per square meter, almost half of the value of nearby residential land in the West Triangle, even though this parcel of land is classified by the national government as strategic and highly commercial.”

Way less than half the actual value
“While a residential lot in the neighboring West Triangle is tagged at around P40,000 per square meter, the reported price of North Triangle land could be way less than half its actual value. And considering the timing of the issuance of the executive order that has paved way for such contract, that is during the 2007 national election, somebody may have earned from it,” Badion says.

Kadamay slams the hospital arrest of CGMA, saying that the ex-president deserves to be nowhere but in an ordinary prison cell. “Compared to the case of electoral sabotage during the 2004 election, graft cases such as the NBN-ZTE deal and the Fertilizer Fund scam are relatively stronger that could lead to incarceration of the ex-president,” Badion says.

Another threat of demolition
Meanwhile, NHA has served a 7-day notice of eviction to families occupying ‘illegal structures’ in Sitio San Roque, North Triangle last December 2. Residents have prepared physical and human barricade in case demolition team will arrive this morning.

According to Jocy Lopez, chair of Kadamay North Triangle, “Their life has been miserable after the national government has announced its plan to relocate the residents of North Triangle to Montalban resettlement sites.”

Since September 23 last year, the infamous “Battle of EDSA,” where residents clashed with NHA-hired demolition teams, they have been receiving threats of eviction almost every month.

The residents demand for an urgent repeal of Arroyo’s EO 620 to junk the QCCBD project, and for a full investigation of the joint-venture contract that has paved the way for the demolition of their homes. They also vow to make Arroyo’s stay at the Veterans hospital as miserable as theirs. ###