Urban poor push scrapping of housing law over demolitions

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.