Urban poor troop to Malacanang on National Heroes Day, demand stop in demolitions

PGMA, Bayani Fernando, not heroes to urban poor

“Makataong pamumuhay, hindi demolisyon!”

Manila, Philippines.  URBAN poor leaders trooped to Mendiola today, National Heroes’ Day, denouncing the government’s plan to demolish informal settlements of 25,000 men, women, and children.

“Today is National Heroes’ Day. Metro Manila Development Authority’s (MMDA) chairman is named Bayani, but his actions are not of a hero. In fact he betrays the ideals and principles that our heroes fought for – to champion the interest of the masses. Implementing the plan to demolish our houses is a concrete manifestation of his continuing insensibility to the plight of the poor, thus making him a villain rather than a hero to the urban poor,” said Von Mesina of Kilos Maralita, a coalition of urban poor organizations.

MMDA is the agency that would spearhead the demolitions of urban poor houses affected by government priority infrastructure projects and those living along the so-called “danger zones,” on the recommendation of the Metro Manila Inter-Agency Committee (MMIAC). Created by Executive Order 803, MMIAC is the office in charge of decongesting the metropolis and providing housing for affected families.

“Real heroes like Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, Tandang Sora, Apolinario Mabini, and Ninoy Aquino sacrificed for the people, but Bayani Fernando and Gloria M. Arroyo are sacrificing the people especially the poor in exchange for beautification and pro-rich development of the Metropolis,” Mesina said.

The protesters wearing masks of the national heroes tore a symbolic copy of EO 803 as a re-enactment of “Cry of Pugadlawin” when Katipuneros tore their cedulas in protest of Spanish colonial and repressive rule.

The protesters cried “justice for the poor.” They said that if these heroes were alive today, they would also protest against the government’s anti-poor policies.

Kilos Maralita, Task Force Anti-Eviction, and other urban poor groups who joined the rally called on Gloria Arroyo, Bayani Fernando, and other government officials involved to immediately drop the plan to demolish the homes of more than 5,000 urban poor families. They urge the government to, in stead proclaim public domains and expropriate private lands presently occupied by informal settlers.

The group also decried the appointment of MMDA as the lead agency of MMIAC and Fernando as chief of the agency that governs housing projects for the poor in Metro Manila. They consider Fernando’s new assignment “as adding insult to the injury already experienced by the poor.”

“MMDA’s orientation is to demolish houses, not to build. Appointing Bayani Fernando as head of MMIAC is like appointing General Jovito Palparan as chairman of the Commission on Human Rights. It places the urban poor in a more precarious situation,” said Noel Cano of Ugnayan ng Mamamayan Laban sa Kahirapan (UMALAB-KA), a member organization of Kilos Maralita.

Cano is a resident of Damayang Lagi in Quezon City, one of the communities included in MMIAC ‘s list of communities that are subject to demolition. The list was released earlier by Fernando.

“We are not against development. But we are against exclusive development where the urban poor are excluded. Throwing us out of the city is not just and humane especially in this time of crisis and against every persons right to live a life with dignity. We, the urban poor, need opportunities for employment and livelihood programs, access to essential, and basic services like clean water and electricity, health care, security of shelter in the city, and all other requirements to live a humane life,” said Jose Morales of Task Force Anti-Eviction.

“Demolition of our houses is definitely not the answer to our problems. We need Heroes to solve our problems not villains like Bayani Fernando and GMA,” said Morales, who represents urban poor communities in Dona Imelda, Quezon City which was threatened of demolition by MMDA last week.##

Urban poor alliance criticizes Mayor Belmonte for ignoring urban poor’s demand for genuine moratorium on demolition

 

Kilos-Maralita (Movement for Social Protection of the Poor) criticized today Quezon City Mayor Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte for continuously playing deaf on the urban poor’s demand for genuine moratorium on demolition of their dwellings.

“We are very disappointed with Mayor Belmonte for his apparent lack of concern to the plight of his urban poor constituents.  Everyday, hundreds of thousands of urban poor in Quezon City face the threat of eviction from their dwellings due to absence of security of land/housing tenure,” said Kilos Maralita coordinator Von Mesina.

According to data from Quezon City’s Urban Poor Affairs Office,  there are more or less 800,000 urban poor in Quezon City.  This number represents forty percent of the two million total population in Quezon City and twenty percent of the entire urban poor population in Metro Manila.

On 09 March 2009, the Quezon City Council passed an Ordinance imposing a moratorium on evictions and demolitions of structures used for dwelling purposes and other measures to protect their right to adequate housing.

 

Kilos-Maralita claimed that there were apparent flaws or weaknesses in said ordinance such as lacking in substance that will truly effect moratorium on demolition and most of all, once enacted, many urban poor areas including North and East Triangles where there are about 12,000 families that will not be covered by the ordinance as its implementation is prospective.  Despite this, the urban poor saw the ordinance as an attempt to, at least, temporarily halt demolition of urban poor dwellings while amendatory law to the Urban Development and Housing Act (UDHA) can be deliberated and passed in the Congress.

“Mayor Belmonte’s veto of the weak proposed ordinance on moratorium on demolition on 23 April 2009 was a reflection of his lack of sincerity to address the dwelling problems of the poor,” said Mesina.

In light of the scrapping of the proposed ordinance, the urban poor alliance reiterated its call to the City Council to pass a city ordinance that will effect a genuine moratorium on evictions and demolitions of informal dwellings or settlements of the poor in Quezon City.

Specifically, Kilos Maralita demands that the following be reflected under separate sections of the new city ordinance:

• conditions for lifting of “cease and desist” order on demolition and evictions will include   “… until an appropriate resolution or policy guidelines ensuring full compliance of the above-mentioned mandatory requirements of the UDHA are issued and/or appropriate amendatory law is passed in the Congress” as what was written in the Resolution of the Commission on Human Rights.
• All lands, whether private or public and with or without ongoing projects, that are currently inhabited by the urban poor must be subjected to moratorium on demolition…
• An oversight or implementing body will be created to do the monitoring and ensuring compliance with the provisions of the ordinance and shall include representatives from the urban poor sector and non-government organizations/people’s organizations in its composition

 

Kilos Maralita asserts that the poor also have a right to the city, to participate in the development planning by the government, and to full social protection especially employment, food, and access to essential services.

18 May 2009

Urban poor launched national campaign for HOUSE, got support of church

QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES – Some five hundred urban poor leaders gathered at the Quezon City Memorial Circle on 01 April 2009 to formally launch Kilos- Maralita or Kilusang Panlipunang Proteksyon para sa Maralita (Movement for Social Protection of the Poor), a broad urban poor alliance with almost 300 member organizations nationwide.

This broad alliance is a result of efforts of various urban poor organizations to create a united front against evictions and demolitions of informal housing settlements of the poor and to put forward their demand for humane housing and dignified living for the poor. Kilos-Maralita’s campaign aims to combine the struggle for housing rights with the struggle for a broad range of social protection measures in this time of global economic crisis. These measures include ensuring access of the poor to employment, livelihood, food, healthcare, education, water and electricity. Under the banner Kilos-Maralita, the urban poor aim to claim their right to the city and their right to active participation in governance.

At the launching, Kilos-Maralita presented the urban poor’s response to the crisis – genuine social protection measures for the poor –  and their action plan in pursuing their demands.

A reverberating chant at the launching was “HOUSE for the poor!”

“The demand does not only represent an abode, but HOUSE itself encapsulates the social protection measures that the urban poor assert especially in this period of economic crisis which on our assessment impacts heavily on the poor,” said Kilos-Maralita acting coordinator Von Mesina.

HOUSE stands for H – health service, O – on-site, in-city housing, U – unemployment insurance, S – subsidies for food, education, water and electricity, and E – employment guarantee,” Mesina added.

Topping the demands of Kilos-Maralita is P50 billion government allocation for humane and affordable housing for the poor.

Kilos-Maralita aims to push for the redirection of the government’s alleged P330 billion stimulus plan towards a program of building secure in-city housing and essential services for the urban poor.

“When the government provides humane housing for the poor, it is not simply spending for structures. It is actually investing on human and economic development since construction of houses is a labor-based intensive activity, thus requires as much human labor for construction of homes, roads and laying of pipes for water and electricity in the community. From the incomes these people shall receive, local and even national economy can be boosted.  People will have money to invest in other economic/financial activity,” elaborated social movements research and advocacy group Institute for Popular Democracy, which also acts as the Secretariat of Kilos-Maralita.

“The P50 billion for humane mass housing will result in 800 billion peso contribution to economic activity of the country,” claimed Mesina as he cited government figure saying that housing has 16x multiplier effect in the economy compared to road construction which only has around 2.2x.  “Constructing houses will stimulate the economy more than constructing roads,” added Mesina.

Members of the urban poor alliance doubted the sincerity of the administration to really help the poor. “GMA is only out to save herself from the possible political repercussion of the crisis, not to help the people in this period of crisis. She should consider our demand to prove that she has even an inch of sympathy to the poor,” lamented Nestor Yaranon a national council member of the National Urban Poor Coalition – a co-convener of Kilos-Maralita.

Meanwhile, Catholic Church’s Bishop Pabillo expressed support to the demands of Kilos-Maralita in a solidarity message he sent to the alliance. “Nakikiisa ako sa panawagan ng KILOS MARALITA na maglaan ng pera ang pamahalaan para sa pabahay ng maralitang taga-lunsod mula sa binabalak na Stimulus Fund (I am in solidarity with Kilos-Maralita in its call for the government to allocate funding for housing for urban poor from its proposed Stimulus Fund),” said Bishop Pabillo in his message.

“House is not only what the urban poor want,” reiterated Kilos-Maralita.  “We demand H.O.U.S.E now,” cried the alliance members at the launching.

H – health service for all through the expansion of PhilHealth membership and benefits; increase outreach of rural health units, medicines be provided for life-long diseases such as hypertension and diabetes, and pre-paid medicines in all public hospitals.

O – on-site development, in-city housing for the urban poor.  The people are naturally drawn to the city because this is where opportunities to have an adequate life can be found as a result also of uneven development in the country; instead of driving these poor people out of the city, the local and national governments must integrate them in the development planning in the city. Foremost, to give them land tenure, proclamations declaring parcels of lands for housing for the poor must be implemented immediately. There are also other options such as expropriation of lands or mortgage lands to the community where medium rise dwellings for commercial and residential use can be built.  The urban poor maybe homeless, but they are not worthless. They can be property developers or community builders.

U- unemployment insurance for Social Security System (SSS) members who are jobless and who are retrenched from work.  Same amount of loan should, at least, be accessed by all SSS members whether they are currently employed or unemployed; Those who have become unemployed should have no less access to income support compared to those who are still employed.

S – subsidies for education, food, water and electricity for poor households. All poor children of school age should be in school. They must be given food in school. Affordable rice for the poor must be continued while a minimum of 6 cubic meters of clean potable water must be accessed by poor families as this amount is the estimated minimum amount of water for a family of 5 to live. There must be no discrimination in access to electricity.

E – employment guarantee for the poor. This can be through the strict implementation of the labor-based equipment supported (LBES) program. This approach can at least double the number of people employed through infrastructure programs. Employment-on-demand or unsolicited proposals from poor communities should be funded, especially where the projects proposed have wage cost components that are at least 30 percent of project cost.

According to IPD, there are rules to be drafted to ensure that HOUSE is delivered to the poor.  “LGUs must draft implementing rules, they are at the frontlines of the unemployment crisis, they must be given a bigger role in the implementation of programs. LGUs’ call for the abolition of DPWH articulates their desire to play a bigger role in the delivery of frontline services. Congress must pass a law requiring Malacañang to consult Congress to report on the implementing rules and regulations of lump sum funds approved in the 2009 budget — this should be part of a bigger agenda for clipping the president’s power. NEDA-ICC rules must be followed to give people confidence that the funds will not be used for electioneering,” enumerated IPD Executive Director Jude Esguerra.

To seal their unity, urban poor leaders put their signatures on the streamers bearing the major demands of Kilos Maralita – “secure housing and dignified living for the poor” and “social protection for the poor now!”

The launch culminated in a torch parade. From the Quezon Circle Memorial Circle, the urban poor activists bearing bamboo torches marched to the National Housing Authority to expose the role of the agency in causing the demolition of urban poor informal housing and the relocation of the poor to resttlement areas far away from jobs and social services.

As they marched they chanted: “Moratorium sa Demolisyon, Ipaglaban! Philhealth coverage, family subsidy, palawakin! Trabaho, Pagkain at Serbisyo! On-site Development Tiyakin! North Triangle, NGC East, Ipaglaban!”

The urban poor broke in to the compound of the NHA and proceeded in front of the main entrance of the building where they held a short program.

Kilos-Maralita’s launch and torch parade were conducted in cooperation with the Institute for Popular Democracy, Asia-Europe People’s Forum-Secretariat for Asia, and the Global Call to Action against Poverty-Philippines.

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