PHILIPPINE SQUATTERS
[PHOTO - MANILA:
The women and children of a shantytown in the Philippine capital huddled along
an alleyway while the men battled riot police nearby in a last-ditch stand to
save their homes.]
MANILA,
MARCH 14, 2012 (MANILA TIMES)
Written by : AFP - Many of the 600 residents had
lived in the shantytown in the center of Metro Manila all of their lives but,
without any formal legal title to their homes, were being evicted to make way
for a new town hall.
"They treated us like criminals," spat out Vicky Balabor, a 47-year-old
mother of three after the hour-long confrontation that saw riot police fire
water cannons and tear gas at the men of the neighborhood.
The men resisted with petrol bombs, rocks and bottles, but numbering only a
few dozen, were no match for the roughly 500 riot police who paved the way for
demolition crews armed with crowbars to tear down the shantytown.
Twenty-two people were slightly injured, including residents, police and
demolition crew members, while 13 men defending their homes were arrested, in
January's skirmish, according to local city council spokeswoman Grace Cortes.
The clearing of Pinaglabanan, an eight-hectare (19.8-acre) park, was just one
of many battles that regularly erupt pitting Manila's giant "informal settler"
community against authorities or property developers who want the land.
More than two million people in Metro Manila—or roughly one fifth of the
sprawling city's population— live in shanty towns as so-called informal
settlers.
The urban blight is worsening as the Philippines' population continues to
expand at one of the fastest rates in the world, and people from rural areas
head to Manila and other cities in search of work.
The phenomenon sees squatters take over parcels of vacant land and build
shanties.
With grinding poverty stripping away choices for the desperate squatters,
almost any type of vacant land is considered an opportunity with some
shantytowns built atop public cemeteries and many in flood-prone areas.
But while the squatters do not have formal rights to the land, Philippine law
makes it hard for the owners—whether they be the government or private
interests—to get it back.
A 1992 law says demolitions and evictions will not be allowed unless the
settlers occupy dangerous areas, when the site is needed for public
infrastructure projects, or when there is a court order.
Some politicians also encourage the settlers to stay so they can be used as
reliable supporters in elections, while high-profile protests or battles such as
the one seen in Pinaglabanan can buy extra time for squatters.
In the Pinaglabanan case, the eviction occurred only after lengthy legal
proceedings, with the local council winning court approval to demolish the slum
12 months earlier to make way for the town hall.
In one incident showing the strength of informal settler communities,
President Benigno Aquino 3rd suspended a P22 billion project to turn some
government land in Manila into a business and shopping district in 2010 after
squatters fought police to prevent the eviction of 6,000 families.
The government was also forced to fight all the way to the Supreme Court in
2007 for permission to evict 20,000 squatter families from the former army
headquarters in Manila.
After winning the legal challenge, the area was turned into an upscale
business, residential and retail district called The Fort that has become one of
the capital's most prestigious districts.
About 3.5 million low-cost homes need to be built across the country to
address the squatter problem, according to Antonio Bernardo, chief executive of
the national government's Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board.
He said the national and local governments were implementing programs to try
and move squatters out of dangerous areas and into formal communities, giving
them financial incentives to do so such as low-interest loans.
Bernardo also pointed to a law that said one out of every five homes built by
Philippine developers must cost under P400,000.
But Arturo Corpuz, vice president and urban planning chief for Ayala Land,
the country's largest property firm, said these low-cost homes were beyond the
reach of many informal settlers. And many of the areas where informal settlers
are asked to move are further away from parts of Manila where work can be found.
Balabor and others in the group cleared from Pinaglabanan in January were
going to be trucked off to live in low-cost homes at a mountainous site in
Rodriguez, about 20 kilometers away.
Under the local government's relocation scheme, they can live in the small
concrete homes in Rodriquez for free for one year, but will then have to start
paying the monthly mortgage of about $175.
But Balabor, 47, earns just $220 a month working as a cleaner at Manila call
centre, while her carpenter husband is out of work.
Even the bus ride from her planned new home to her workplace would cost a
third of her salary every month.
Balabor said her family had no choice but to move to Rodriquez for the
moment, but she had no idea how they could meet the mortgage payments in a
year's time. "We just don't know what we're going to do," she said.
Chief News Editor: Sol
Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE
NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS
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