ANAKPAWIS Partylist Rep. Fernando Hicap filed a resolution urging the government to impose a moratorium on demolitions of informal settler families in urban poor settlements affected by ongoing and future forced evictions and demolitions.
“The government should immediately impose a nationwide moratorium on forced evictions and demolitions of urban poor communities, in order to protect thousands of urban poor families from violent attacks pending provision of livelihood, adequate housing, and social services by the government,” the Anakpawis solon said.
Hicap filed the measure a day ahead of the July 30 deadline set by the Quezon City local government for informal settlers living along priority waterways to relocate to another place. About 544,294 residents living in barangays along Tullahan River and San Juan river traversing Quezon City are affected by the deadline.
The government said it will relocate about 20,000 urban poor families in eight major waterways: San Juan River, Pasig River, Tullahan River, Maricaban Creek, Manggahan Floodway, Estero Tripa de Gallina, Estero de Maypajo, and Estero de Sunog Apog before the end of the year.
Hicap said a moratorium on all demolitions should be imposed pending provisions of adequate housing, livelihood and social services to urban poor families. “Gustong walisin ang mga maralita sa ‘danger zone’ pero ililipat naman sila sa ‘death zone’ kung saan walang kabuhayan, walang trabaho, walang serbisyo at bulnerable rin sa mga kalamidad gaya ng lindol at baha. Habang wala pang malinaw na komprehensibong programa ang gobyerno para sa mga informal settler families, dapat wala munang galawan at demolisyon sa mga komunidad,” the solon said.
“Urban poor families are mostly composed of unemployed persons, workers with odd jobs and those with insufficient livelihood and economic opportunities. They are very vulnerable to various calamities including fires and floods. They are also perennially afflicted with poverty, hunger and lack of social services. They are among the poorest of the poor,” Hicap said.
Hicap added that “urban poor families are always in threat of displacement due to demolitions and forced evictions carried out because of the following reasons: government infrastructure and decongestion projects, creation of tourism destinations and production areas, public-private partnership projects, mixed-used development projects and land disputes.”
“It seems that the government wants to ‘flush out and decongest’ Metro Manila of urban poor families but it has no concrete solutions on how to provide affected families with affordable housing, livelihood and services. The government only wants to clear the Metro Manila cities of urban poor settlements to give way to various Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects,” the solon said.
At least 50 PPP projects being pursued by the government will affect thousands of urban poor families. Among the said projects include the following: North Bay Boulevard Business Park (NBBBP), National Government Center (NGC), Quezon City Socialized Housing Program or Bistekville, Quezon City Central Business District (QC-CBD), National Bilibid Prison (NBP) Privatization, Manila-Cavite Coastal Road Reclamation Project (MCCRRP), MWSS Aqueduct improvement, C-5 Northern Extension Project,Clearing operations for the construction of MRT-7,Construction of San Juan City Hall, Payatas Dumpsite Expansion and various projects under the National Reclamation Plan.
Affected communities from Barangay Silangan, Barangay Payatas and West Kamias in Quezon City staged a picket at the House of Representatives to press Congress to act against demolitions.
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