[Housing firms likened to oil firms] Montalban relocatees storm gas station, housing firms to protest profiteering over the suffering of the poor

MONTALBAN RELOCATEES ALLIANCE-KADAMAY
RELEASE l March 20, 2012
Reference: Gloria Arellano, Kadamay national sec-gen, 09213927457

Relocated poor families under Montalban Relocation Alliance (MRA)-Kadamay staged a protest action in front of a gasoline station in Timog Avenue, QC to protest the recent oil price hikes in the local market.

They later stormed the nearby New San Jose Builders (NSJB) headquarters in QC this morning against what the relocatees claimed as low-cost housing firm's profiteering schemes on the urban poor relocatees, in connivance with the National Housing Authority (NHA).

Francis Esponilla from MRA-Kadamay likened the housing firms to oil companies in taking profit from the suffering of the toiling masses.

“We went to Metro Manila to have our voices heard regarding the unabated oil price hikes and our condemnation of the protection that the oil firms received from the government, no different from the Aquino administration is letting the low-cost housing firms take profit from over the suffering of the poor relocatees,” Esponilla said.

Some 80 members of Montalban Relacatees Alliance-Kadmay barricaded the gate of NSJB to temporarily halt the operation of the said firm. They also hurled paint bombs on the gate of the office to emphasize their similarity with the oil firms that were also paint-bombed by the militants recently.

The group later went to the main office of National Housing Authority (NHA) and also hurled paintbombs at the emblem of the agency.

The NHA-administered relocation in Montalban is one of the government's largest relocation sites with a population of around 30,000 relocated families. Most of those that are victims of demolition in Metro Manila found themselves victims of chronic poverty in the Montalban relocation sites. The group has revealed anomalous contracts entered by the government with the New San Jose Builders, while the said housing firms extract hundreds of thousands of pesos from the impoverished relocatees.

The rally today is part of the Week-Long Protests against anti-poor laws and policies of the government including the Oil Deregulation Law and Urban Development and Housing Act which has led to countless cases of demolition of homes, price increases on oil and other basic commodities and services among others. They said the weeklong protests will culminate in a giant rally on Friday, March 23 at the Supreme Court and in Mendiola against these policies.###