[On the 3rd year of Aquino's DAP] DAP has made our situation worse--urban poor group

Urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihihrap (Kadamay) has alleged misuse of the housing funds released under the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) of the Aquino regime, three years after the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) approved the release of the first trance of DAP funds in October 12, 2011.

According to a DBM report, a total of P158B has been released for the DAP as of December 2013 in six different tranches. A memorandum for the President dated December 28, 2013 from the DBM Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Aresenio Balisacan has recommended the termination of DAP, amid 'unwarranted controversy' generated by the program. In July this year, the Supreme Court eventually declared parts of DAP unconstitutional amid protests staged by different groups who have called the president the Pork Barrel King.

Meanwhile, Kadamay, who has mounted scores of people's barricades against demolition of urban poor communities under the Aquino regime, has alleged misuse of housing funds released under the DAP.

Of the first tranche of DAP fund (officially called as DAP1) worth P72,119,554,000, P11.05B was released to augment the housing programs for the urban poor, especially those who reside along waterways in Metro Manila who received P10B for the year 2012 as part of the P50B-worth Infromal Settler Fund.

Other urban poor beneficiaries include the North Triangle residents with P450M who are to be evicted for the implementation of the Quezon City Central Business District project and some 20,000 families living along the 22-km stretch of the Iloilo River and its tributaries with P100M. Meanwhile, P500M was released as well to provide housing and lots to uniformed personnel of the Bureau of Fire Protection and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.

Gloria Arellano, Kadamay national chair, said that instead of resolving the housing problem of the urban poor, the Informal Settler Fund and other housing funds released under DAP has only made the situation worse. The leader has alleged misuse of the funds, and possible corruption in the housing contracts entered into by the National Housing Authority (NHA), to which the budget was released in 2011, with low-cost housing firms.

Arellano added that contrary to its purpose the ISF and other housing budget has been used to construct off-city relocation sites for the urban poor.

A DBM report on DAP has cited that these housing funds should be used to construct in-city housing for the urban poor, which has been recommended by the Department of Interior and Local Government based on a study on the situation of those who were transferred to off-city relocation sites.

"Using the ISF and other housing funds under DAP, the Aquino government has cursed thousands of urban poor to a more miserable situation and deeper penury, subjecting them to massive unemployment and absence of basic social services in off-city relocation sites," said Arellano.

By the end of 2015, the NHA is expected to build 92,257 housing units for informal settler along Metro Manila using the Informal Settler Fund. More than 80% or 75,105 units are found in off-city relocation sites. The NHA in 2016 still has 11,962 units to construct to complete its total target of 104,219 beneficiaries along waterways in Metro Manila.

Kadamay said that instead of providing services to thousands of urban poor families, the ISF and other housing funds of the Aquino government have served as a milking cow of corrupt officials in government's key-shelter agencies and businessmen in the housing sector.

The group also pointed out the possible involvement of Aquino's cabinet secretaries, including Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, who is a brother-in-law of Gerry Acuzar, owner of New San Jose Builders' Inc, which built most of the off-city relocation sites under the Aquino administration.

Since October last year, Kadamay has been staging picket-protests at the Commission on Audit calling for a full-audit of the ISF and NHA annual budget. But Arellano said, the agency has been deaf to their requests even after a year of follow-up letters and protests.

Series of demolition

Meanwhile, Alyansa Kontra Demolisyon, a network of urban poor groups against forcible eviction, has slammed recent series of demolition of urban poor communities in Metro Manila and other urban poor centers nationwide.

The group said that the demolition of homes, will not only pave way to business projects under its Public-Private Partnership programs, but will as well ensure a big demand for government's low-cost housing ventures.

Tomorrow, a groups of residents from an urban poor community along waterway in Macda Area, Brgy. Cembo in Makati City are facing threat of demolition of their homes. More than 850 families who have rejected the off-city relocation offered by the NHA in Trece Martirez City in Cavite are decided to defend their community by all means.

"If the Aquino government is sincere in addressing the squatter problem in the country, it only needs to address the chronic unemployment problem which has limited the capacity of the poor to secure themselves of a decent housing," said Arellano.

In the Memorandum for the President in December last year, Abad has recommended "the termination of DAP given that it has succeeded as a fiscal stimulus measure and reform intervention to plug leakages and inefficiencies in disbursements, speed up government spending and expanded the economy."

"With billions of taxpayers' money (mis)spent, the unemployment and poverty in the country have remained at record-level, only proving the insincerity of the Aquino administration in delivering genuine service to the poor Filipinos," said Arellano.

"The corruption of billions of pesos of housing fund will forever haunt the Aquino regime, even as it ends its term in 2016," added Arellano.###