Urban Poor Group Seek Help of Catholic Bishops

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Urban Poor Group Seek Help of Catholic Bishops

30 July 2009. Various urban poor groups in Metro Manila have asked the help of Catholic Bishops to arrange a meeting with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to discuss the Executive Order 803 creating and directing the Metro Manila Inter-Agency Committee (MMIAC) to plan, coordinate and implement a comprehensive shelter program for informal settlers.

In a letter to President Arroyo, through Archbishop Diosdado Talamayan of Tuguegarao and Bishop Ramon Villena of Bayombong, the Task Force Anti-Eviction told the president that her advisors have given her bad advice in the matter of MMIAC, especially in making Bayani Fernando and the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) the chair of that body.

“For years Bayani Fernando has been perceived as the number one oppressor of the poor. He has evicted thousands of the poorest families (those living under bridges and along esteros, for example), and left them without relocation, literally homeless in the streets, against our own and international law. He has destroyed the goods of poor vendors. Now he is promoted to head the MMIAC which puts him in charge of all aspects of social housing, including evictions, relocation, upgrading and construction. His control over the poor is greatly increased. Poor people say they are deeply offended by this promotion given their oppressor,” the letter read.

“Remove him, Mrs. President. There are many other more capable and humane men and women who can head the MMIAC. Bishops, the Commission on Human Rights, dozens of NGOs, civil society groups and thousands of urban poor people had asked that you not appoint him,” urban poor leaders said.

“The act of promoting Bayani Fernando will greatly increase his control over the poor. We request the president to remove him as the chair of MMIAC. Instead replace him with capable and humane men or women who can head the MMIAC,” said Ted Añana, Deputy Coordinator of the Urban Poor Associates (UPA).

If this is not possible for any number of reasons, people’s organizations and NGOs such as Community Organizers Multiversity (COM), Community Organization of the Philippine Enterprise (COPE) Foundation, and UPA, want Chairman Fernando to pledge in public way that he is committed to provide relocation for all evicted families and to seek genuine consultation with the poor.

“We ask that you advise Chairman Fernando to seek genuine consultation with the poor and NGOs, allow people’s participation, and learn from the best experiences of other countries. We ask that this consultation begin with the makeup of the MMIAC. The poor wish there be representatives of the poor and the NGOs,” the letter added.

Urban poor leaders also reminded the president that during their meeting August 1 last year, she gave directives to government agencies so that the 1,400 families from the 11 priority areas evicted by MMDA and now living in the streets be relocated to Montalban at the cost of P300 million.

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TASK FORCE ANTI-EVICTION
c/o URBAN POOR ASSOCIATES
25A Mabuhay Street, Brgy. Central, Quezon City
Tels (632) 426 4119/ 7615 Telefax (632) 426 4118
Email: upa@pldtdsl.net



July 10, 2009


H.E. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
President, Republic of the Philippines
Office of the President
Malacañang Palace
Manila

Through the kindness of:
Archbishop Diosdado Talamayan and Bishop Ramon Villena


Dear Mrs. President,

Warm greetings from all the urban poor.

We must tell you in all respect that your urban advisors have given you bad advice in the matter of the Metro Manila Inter-Agency Committee, especially in making Bayani Fernando and the Metro Manila Development Authority the chair of that body (E.O. 803).

For years he has been perceived as the number one oppressor of the poor. He has evicted thousands of the poorest families (those living under bridges and along esteros, for example), and left them without relocation, literally homeless in the streets, against our own and international law. He has destroyed the goods of poor vendors. Now he is promoted to head the MMIAC which puts him in charge of all aspects of social housing, including evictions, relocation, upgrading and construction. His control over the poor is greatly increased. Poor people say they are deeply offended by this promotion given their oppressor.

Remove him, Mrs. President. There are many other more capable and humane men and women who can head the MMIAC. Bishops, the Commission on Human Rights, dozens of NGOs, civil society groups and thousands of urban poor people had asked that you not appoint him.

If it is not possible to do this for any number of reasons, we ask that you require Chairman Fernando, to pledge in a public way that he is committed to providing relocation for all evicted families. The law binding in these matters is well expressed in the Resolution of the CHR recommending a moratorium on evictions and demolitions (CHR (IV) No. A2008-052).

We ask that you order the creation of “The Independent Body, legally responsible for preventing illegal forced evictions” that was recommended to the Philippine Government by the United Nations Human Rights Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1995. This new body can be located in the CHR.

All other attempts to prevent illegal forced evictions have failed.

We ask that you advise Chairman Fernando to seek genuine consultation with the poor and NGOs, allow people’s participation, and learn from the best experiences of other countries. We ask that this consultation begin with the makeup of the MMIAC. The poor wish there be representatives of the poor and the NGOs.

Can you take action so that the 1,400 families from the 11 priority areas evicted and now living in the streets be relocated to Montalban at the cost of P300 million? You ordered that this be done last year.

We make these requests because the future of our children depends on your decision.

We ask that you please meet with our group to discuss these matters which are very important for us as soon as possible.

We thank you for all the time you have given us. You have had more meetings with the poor than any other president.


Very sincerely,



ROSALINDA TAGHOY
Bacood Ilaya Looban Homeowners Association


ROSALINDA SATURNO
Samahang Nayon ng Balintawak, Inc.


PRESCILDA P. JUANICH
SAPIPA-R10, Navotas


ROLANDO L. SERNA
Market-3 Fishport of Navotas Neighborhood Association


YOLANDA R. OFAGA
Samahang ng mga Residente ng R-10, Navotas


IDA J. CABAZARES
United Group for Progress


JOSE MORALES
Ugnayang Lakas ng Apektadong Pamilya sa Baybaying Ilog-Pasig (ULAP


FRED DAMIAN
Samahang Magkakapitbahay ng Estero dela Reina (SMER)


JOANNE B.
Pasay Estero Informal Settlers Alliance

Civil Society Organization’s Perspective on the Philippine Urban Poor Situation

This document is publicly viewable at: http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhhqg4t6_186d2pm2qfw

Denis Murphy

Denis Murphy
Parangal Lingkod Sambayanan (Public Service Award) 2009

When as a young Jesuit, Denis Murphy returned to the Philippines in 1967 fresh from his Masters in Social Work studies at Fordham University, New York, Fr. Horacio de la Costa, S.J., then Provincial, assigned him to work with Fr. Gaston Duchesneau, S.J. at the Institute of Social Order. Fr. Murphy, S.J. was to help develop a strong Jesuit apostolate dedicated to the needs and aspirations of the urban poor. Given the leeway to explore possible locations for this work toward social justice over the next few months, and actively studying Tagalog, he settled on Tondo as the most complex, interesting and challenging of city neighborhoods.

Today Denis Murphy is solidly recognized in civil society circles as “the Father of Community Organizing in the Philippines”. Thousands of community organizers have been trained in “CO” and its many derivatives since the 1970s.

Currently the Executive Director of Urban Poor Associates, which he founded in 1992, he has enabled communities to resist and negotiate poor people’s rights to secure land tenure over the last 44 years. Some 50,000 Filipino families directly owe their access to land tenure to his creativity, dedication and facilitating leadership. Through effective community organizing, poor groups have learned to confront the inequities of urban land distribution, interact as equals with government officials, and utilize both pressure as well as bargaining tactics to become upstanding citizens of this nation.

Denis Murphy helped organized the Philippine Ecumenical Council on Community Organization (PECCO) in the mid-1960s, serving as a representative of the Catholic membership in collaboration with Protestant church representatives. Such an interdenominational alliance was unheard of before then. In the early 1970s he recruited the Catholic board members from academia, media, and the Church as well CO trainees for this new work, selected the Tondo Foreshore as the initial organizing area, and spent many hours “doing legwork” to convinced disheartened residents as well as some “know it all” authoritarian local leaders that democratic organizing could indeed lead to a better life for all.

The resulting Zone One Tondo Organization, which still thrives today, is living proof that informed, determined, and active poor people can, as organized groups, transform social power discrepancies and demand benefits not voluntarily allocated to them by the larger society. The results emerged in ZOTO’s victories around secure land tenure on the Tondo Foreshore and Dagat-dagatan, Navotas in the 1970s, the residents’ subsequent access to improved basic services, infrastructure improvements, and housing, and their ability to sustain these accomplishments and confront new challenges over time.

Denis Murphy’s vision and enabling leadership continues to move and shape Philippine society in the 21st century, giving empowered people a voice in their own destiny. As a result more enlightened government processes have emerged in the course of this “demand from below”. Today many housing officials in government are strong advocates for people’s participation in human settlements planning, having discovered that negotiating with organized poor groups who can articulate their perspectives and recommend workable solutions, makes their own work easier and more effective.

Soon after ZOTO was organized, “CO” spread to many other cities in the Philippines. So notable were these early developments that other Asian groups working with their own urban poor readily responded in 1971 to Denis Murphy’s advocacy for an ecumenical network, the Asian Committee for People’s Organization, each with its own national set of equivalent NGOs and POs. Remaining at the forefront of civil society initiatives in support of the urban poor in Asia, ACPO recognizes Denis Murphy as consistently having organized the Catholic Church’s participation in the work.

In 1976, he left the Jesuit order but continued his commitment to community organizing. His subsequent marriage to community organizer Alice Gentolia-Murphy created the well-known and formidable “dynamic duo” that has brought significant breakthroughs for people empowerment. He credits the Society of Jesus for protecting him when the Marcos Administration not only refused him permission to work with the Office of Human Development, Federation of Asian Bishops Conference (OHD/FABC), but threatened to deport him as well.

Safely back at the OHD/FABC a few weeks later, the bishops again asked him to concentrate on the cities and their growing numbers of urban poor informal settlers, disempowered and living in inhumanly degraded environments. This effort would include organizing the Bishops Institute for Social Action, with a major program that brought hundreds of bishops from Asia and other continents to the Philippines. The bishops met as a group to discuss what they had experienced and discerned in the light of the Gospel and the Social Teachings of the Church.

This commitment to involving the Church directly in dialogues with the poor, thereby making the Gospel resonate in the everyday lives of marginalized groups, continues to be a part of Mr. Murphy’s mission now. He insists that the Church is the most reliable ally of the urban poor in their struggles for a better life, and that it is part of his role to help people make their faith a motivational force in community organizing.

As for his Jesuit brothers, some of whom remain his best friends, he believes that “A person can best appreciate the Jesuits if he knows them from within and from without. One point of view without the other is inadequate.”

Denis Murphy is also a prolific writer who expertly combines his social and humanities proclivities. Some 30 articles and poems of his have been published in America, the Society’s official magazine in the United States. His four volumes of short stories and his novel, A Watch in the Night, have been widely read. Although exercises in fiction, they are usually based on the real social issues he has confronted all his life. But perhaps he is best known among today’s reading public for his insightful articles in the Philippine Daily Inquirer as well as the now-defunct Manila Chronicle.

For his dedication to community organizing as a vital social force toward social justice in Asia;

For enabling thousands of urban poor families to achieve dignity by having a voice in their own secure future, for training and inspiring hundreds of young community organizers to be “men and women for urban poor others,” for assisting the Catholic Church to carry out its preferential option for the poor in the Philippines and Asia and to do so in ecumenical partnerships;

And for his contributions to social commentary and fiction rooted in social issues, the Ateneo de Manila University, in this year’s sesquicentennial anniversary of its foundation, is proud to confer the Parangal Lingkod Sambayanan on Denis Murphy.

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Denis Murphy - Parangal Lingkod Sambayanan (Public Service Award) 2009

On July 14, 2009, as part of the Ateneo de Manila’s sesquicentennial celebration, two honorary degrees and eight university awards were conferred on distinguished individuals at the Special Academic Convocation.

The ceremony was held at 3:30 p.m. at the Rev. Henry Lee Irwin Theater, Ateneo de Manila University, Loyola Heights campus.

One of the awardees for this year is Denis Murphy.

The award is in recognition of his commitment to the cause of the urban poor and advocacy for social transformation in his various capacities as a community organizer at the Institute of Social Order in the '60s, Philippine Ecumenical Committee for Community Organization in the '70s, Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences between the '70s and '80s, and the Urban Poor Associates since 1991.

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The Award gives recognition to outstanding public service of an individual (Benigno S. Aquino Jr. in 1984) or a group of individuals (Radio Veritas in 1983).


Read related article on the 2009 Special Academic Convocation here.

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