Urban poor push scrapping of housing law over demolitions
>> Monday, April 14, 2014
By Aldwin Quitasol
BAGUIO CITY — The Baguio City
Urban Poor Alliance demanded junking of the 22-year old Republic Act 7279 or
known as the Urban Development and Housing Act (UDHA).
UDHA
passed into law on March 24, 1992 saying this was ‘anti-poor” following a
series of demolition of so-called “illegal houses” in this summer capital.
The UDHA
was passed by Senate and Congress to “uplift the conditions of the
underprivileged and homeless citizens in urban areas and in resettlement areas
by making available to them decent housing at affordable cost, basic services,
and employment opportunities.”
Organisasyon
Dagiti Nakurapay nga Umili Ti Siyudad (Ornus) secretary-general Daisy Bagni said the objective of the law for the urban poor
is good to see but actually being used
as a license to demolish their houses and communities.
She hit
the administration of President Benigno Aquino III for not analyzing that UDHA
which was enacted during the rule of his mother did not really serve its
purpose to uplift conditions of
underprivileged Filipinos and instead retained this anti-poor law. She
said that P-Noy was not true to his words during his campaign especially when
he said the Filipino masses are his bosses.
Bagni said
while it is true that UDHA temporary delays demolition of houses because of its
section 28 (c) stating that a court order must first be presented before the
conduct of demolition, there are many cases where houses of the urban poor were
dismantled leaving many families homeless even without court orders to pave way
for government projects and programs. She also criticized section 28 a and b
allowing demolitions “when persons or entities occupy danger areas such as
esteros, railroad tracks, garbage dumps,
riverbanks, shorelines, waterways, and other public places such as sidewalks,
roads, parks, and playgrounds;” and “when government infrastructure projects
with available funding are about to be
implemented.”
She said
in Baguio, there were many urban poor families losing their homes because of
these provisions.
She cited
the demolition of more than 30 houses at Cypress of Barangay Irisan on August
of 2003.
She said
the area was eyed for a Community Mortgage Program (CMP) which is a program
under UDHA.
In the
said program, communities were encouraged to organize associations to acquire
the land.
Bagni said
the CMP in Irisan missed its objectives in delivering decent housing to the
poor.
She
said CMP’s implementation was marred
with serious allegations of corruption of its mandate to provide low-cost
housing, among other needed social services.
She also
said that it is hard for most of the CMP beneficiaries to pay for the
amortization for their houses.
She cited
demolition of around 46 houses on March of this year at SAO, Fort del Pilar by
the Philippine Military Academy (PMA).
She said
there will be 18 more houses to be demolished. She also mentioned the
demolition at Barangay Loakan-Liwanag also last March 2014 by Camp John Hay
(CJH) authorities. Bagni said the government did not bother to see why such
people resort to constructing their houses in disputable lands. She said the
poor have no choice because of the absence of affordable housing and housing
assistance.
She said
though that they were also condemning professional squatting being done by some
opportunists taking advantage of the sorry state of homeless families and
individuals.
She
mentioned a case in Fort del Pilar where an individual sold so-called “rights”
to some families to have their housing in the area.
She also
cited the illegal entry of groups like the Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army
(CPLA) over private and even government lots putting their members in jeopardy.
Bagni said
Ornus together with the rest of the urban poor of the country is calling for
the scrapping of UDHA. “We demand the junking of such anti-poor programs and
policies like the UDHA and the imposition of moratorium on the demolition of
informal settlers pending provision of livelihood, adequate housing, and social
services by the government .”
On March
2013, the national urban poor alliance Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap
(Kadamay) filed a petition before the Supreme Court for the junking of
UDHA. Said petition is still pending at
the highest court of the land.
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