Sufferings of Christ, Kalbaryo of the Urban Poor

Press Release
March 30, 2010

Fifteen young urban poor wearing Christ masks re-enacted the passion and death of Jesus Christ today in Makati city’s business district, a place that the poor consider a symbol of wealth in Metro Manila and where one does not see the worsening problems of poverty, violence, and oppression. With them were members of housing rights organizations including Urban Poor Associates (UPA), Community Organizers Multiversity (COM), and Community Organization of the Philippine Enterprise Foundation (COPE).

This Lenten season marked the 24th year of Kalbaryo with a theme “What Have You Done to my Brothers and Sisters”? A 24 years of struggle of the urban poor sector against evictions, homelessness, hunger, injustice, joblessness, lack of dignity and powerlessness.

No big changes have happened in the condition of the poor during the 24 years. Through the Kalbaryo the actors delivered a message that Christ is judging us on what we have done to our urban poor brothers and sisters. Jesus tells us in Matthew’s Gospel (Mt 25) where he is speaking of the hungry, homeless, and persecuted, “Whatever you do to the least of my brothers you do unto me.” Thus, it shows that the suffering of Jesus should remind us of the sufferings of the poor.

“The Kalbaryo of the urban poor started in 1986. Over the years it has taken place in different places: in Leveriza; on top of the old Smokey Mountain; in Cabuyao relocation area; in urban poor places where eviction and oppression are imminent,” said UPA Deputy Coordinator Teodoro Añana. “But this year, massive demolitions are happening in all parts of Metro Manila even when it is a presidential election year. So through this Kalbaryo we want to show images of the sufferings of the poor and Jesus. It is also a non violent democratic way of seeking solutions to the urban poor problems.”

UPA, a non-government organization that focuses on evictions of urban poor people, found out that every hour two urban poor families lost their homes and were evicted from their community. That means in one day 40 families are rendered homeless and in a week, a total of 277 urban poor families made homeless. Most of the eviction cases are done by forcibly and turned violent. Human rights violations during eviction and demolition are not recorded by government agencies.

Last March 22, 2010 the urban poor groups sought the help of Commission on Election (Comelec) to ban demolition during the election period as this could result to the disenfranchisement of thousands of urban poor voters. At 2:00 PM today, the groups ended their Kalbaryo by revisiting the Comelec’s office to follow up on the commission’s response to their petition—appeal for a demolition moratorium. The urban poor group also submitted a letter to Atty. Ferdinand Rafanan, the legal department head of Comelec requesting for a dialog with him to discuss urban poor people’s concern about their suffrage.

Añana concluded, “We believe there can be no solution to the country’s problem unless the poor, who are at least 50% of the population, are involved in the reform process. This can only be concretely done by exercising their right to vote and electing leaders who will change the condition of the urban poor. Because demolition and relocation threaten this reform process, the urban poor sector will never get tired of waiting for Comelec’s action on this matter. They want Comelec’s answer during the Kalbaryo. Only 42 days are left before the May 10 election. What is important is the poor should be involved in all the phases of reform—in voting, planning, in the implementation and in the enjoyment of the good results of reform”

Kalbaryo as a tradition has united the urban and rural poor in seeking to build a society of justice and prosperity for all. Anti-poor policies and strategies are still in existence, hence the continuous creation of slums in urban areas. If no serious action is taken, such tragedy will mean the poorest are getting poorer. The urban poor want a stop to government unjust actions. The Kalbaryo is a gentle way of reminding us of our obligations to our brothers and sisters. -30-

Kalbaryo ng Maralitang Taga-Lungsod

MEDIA ADVISORY

In observance of the Lenten Season, the urban poor will hold their 24th year of Kalbaryo with a theme, “What Have You Done to My Brothers and Sisters”. This will show that the sufferings of Jesus should remind us of the sufferings of the poor.

The celebration of the annual Kalbaryo will be on March 30, 2010. The celebration will be led by men and women wearing Christ Masks. The urban poor actors will carry signs containing quotes from the bible. There will also be a small tableau of a child sleeping on cardboard and a mother begging while holding her baby.

Also this year, the urban poor will depict “Salubong” on April 3, 2010 (Black Saturday) in Manggahan Floodway, Pasig City, where 60,000 urban poor are being evicted because of the President’s issuance of Executive Order 854.

Program
Date Scenarios
Kalbaryo
March 30 (Tuesday)
Makati City At 10:00 AM, six Christs, one woman and baby, one young boy will be at the Philippine Stock Exchange in Makati lining up in the main door. There will be music and a drama about the condition of the poor.

Then they will walk to Ayala Ave. in a single file in rhythmic way. They cross to the Ninoy Aquino monument and stand there looking at the traffic.

Next, they will go to the Rustan’s Mall and do the same action as at the Stock Exchange.

At 2:00 PM, the last stop of the Kalbaryo is at the Comission on Election (Comelec) office in Intramuros. Christ will reiterate the message that demolitions should be banned during election period as they can disenfranchise thousands of urban poor voters.

Salubong
April 3 (Black Saturday)
Manggahan Floodway, Pasig City At 4:00 PM, 2000 urban poor people will meet at the F. Legazpi Bridge (former Javier Bridge) Manggahan Floodway, Pasig City, to watch Mary and Christ puppets riding rafts on the floodway and meeting one another, accompanied by 50 children wearing angel costumes.

Then at 5:30 pm, the participants will go to Purok 6 East bank road, Sta. Lucia, Manggahan Floodway, Pasig City for a prayer service.

Please Cover.

Urban Poor Ask the Comelec to Ban Demolition

Five hundred urban poor people marched to Comelec and filed a petition-letter to ban demolitions during the election period. The people’s organization and housing rights organizations including Urban Poor Associates (UPA), Community Organizers Multiversity (COM), and Community Organization of the Philippine Enterprise Foundation (COPE), brought with them a 1-meter high improvised Precinct Count Optical Scanner machine that emits a big ballot saying, “No to Demolition”. The group also changed the meaning of PCOS to People’s Concern Over Suffrage.

UPA, a non-government organization that concentrates on evictions of urban poor people, pointed out that there are 804,562 urban poor voters that could be disenfranchised because of the on-going massive demolition and distant relocation conducted by the government.

UPA Legal Counsel Bienvenido Salinas said, “This May 2010 election is expected to create change in the Philippine Governance and it is people’s right to exercise their right to vote and to elect leaders. Hence not a single voter should be denied this right. Forced evictions and relocating informal settlers to distant places in time of election is unlawful as they will surely disenfranchise members of the urban poor. Hence, we urge Comelec, the most powerful government agency during elections to ban demolitions and distant relocation.”

One of the basic human rights recognized in the international instruments of human rights is the right to vote as guaranteed by the Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The said right is reiterated in Section 1, Article V of the Philippine Constitution.

Estrella Terencio, president of UPSAI and former railway dweller in Makati was relocated in 2006 to give way to the Northrail-Southrail Linkage Project said, “When we were forcibly relocated to Cabuyao, Laguna more or less we had 4000 voters prepared for the 2007 election. But only 400 were able to vote because most of us were not yet settled in the relocation site and did not have the required six-month residency.”

“Political candidates in Makati even filed a petition for exclusion against us who were relocated to Southville Cabuyao, claiming that we had ceased to be bonafide residents of Makati City. We are one with all the urban poor facing demolition in calling on the Comelec to ban demolitions because we know that they could also be disenfranchised just as we experienced in the last election”, she added.

Nilo Cosino, residing in Manggahan Floodway Pasig City and affected by the E.O 854 of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said, “The government rehabilitation project of Manggahan Floodway will relocate 24,000 voters along Pasig before the May 10 election to Calauan, Laguna, 100-kilometers away from Pasig. For this reason we are afraid that many of us will not be able to vote because we are registered in Pasig City and the transportation to Pasig to vote would cost P300 round trip, too much for a poor person.”

UPA monitored that beginning this year from January to March 3,043 families have been evicted compared to only one demolition last year in the same period. For example, demolition is taking place in Manggahan Floodway, C-5 Road Project, and Road 10 Navotas which turned violent. If this trend continues for the year, it will go against a commonly held observation that the numbers of evictions and demolition usually go down during a presidential election year.

“In 1998 presidential election a decrease of 107% of families evicted and in 2004 presidential election 366% steep decline of families evicted in Metro Manila was recorded. It is obvious that politicians once considered the urban poor as vote banks but now it is different, because rampant demolition is witnessed during this presidential election year,” said UPA Deputy Coordinator Teodoro Añana.

Añana concluded that, “Many urban poor communities are ready to make the May 10 election meaningful for them and their children. However, some think the evictions are turning out to be a way for politicians to deprive them of their fundamental right to vote and to frustrate their desire for meaningful political change. Together with the urban poor we are asking government, especially the COMELEC, to impose a ban on demolitions for this election year.” -30-

EVICTIONS ARE UP DESPITE 2010 BEING A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION YEAR

Teodoro Añana
Deputy Coordinator
Urban Poor Associates

Based on Urban Poor Associates’ (UPA) monitoring many demolitions, some of them violent, have taken place in the first weeks of 2010.

From January to February last year UPA monitored only one demolition incident involving 87 families in Sta. Lucia, Pasig City. But during the same period this year 2,500 families have been evicted. If this trend continues for the year, it will go against a commonly held observation that the numbers of evictions and demolitions usually go down during a presidential election year

In the 1998 presidential election, the number of evicted families in Metro Manila went down to 3,882 from 8,067 in 1997 or a decrease of 107%. In the 2004 presidential election some 925 families in Metro Manila were evicted, a steep decline from the number of 4,315 families evicted in 2003 or a decrease of 366%. The reason is quite obvious: politicians do not want to antagonize thousands of urban poor voters. This is a common observation in other Asian countries where politicians consider urban poor communities as vote banks.

Beginning January this year, however, more evictions are happening. Is it because President Arroyo is not running for president? (She is running as a candidate for congress in a Pampanga district). For example, evictions are taking place in communities along the Manggahan Floodway in Pasig City, Road 10 in Navotas City, and C-5 Road in Quezon City. Evictions in the three places will dislocate thousands of urban poor families and potential voters: 4,000 families from R-10 Navotas, 40,000 from C-5 in Quezon City, and 100,000 families from the Manggahan Floodway in Pasig City and Taytay. The president is reported by the media as instructing the DPWH to finish the construction of C-5 Road so that South Luzon Expressway and North Luzon Expressway will be connected before she steps down.

The DPWH offers only financial assistance of P21,000 to a family it evicts; it shows a take it or leave it attitude. This is a departure from their practice under the administration of former President Ramos when DPWH built and managed its own resettlement sites such as those in Bulacan and Cavite. They say they do not have any relocation sites now. The financial offer is contrary to law. Section 28 of the UDHA specifically mentions only in court ordered demolitions can financial assistance be given.

The Manggahan Floodway demolitions are being justified as part of the flood prevention initiatives of the Pasig River and its tributaries, in the light of the Typhoon Ondoy floods. Some of the affected communities have been given security of tenure through President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Presidential Proclamations which declared the place a socialized housing site. The proclamations have been revoked by Executive Order No. 854. People are saying that local politicians and HUDDC want to develop the place for commercial use. The evicted families are being relocated to Calauan in Laguna.

These are projects worth billions of pesos. They are on-going projects and thus are presumed exempted from the election ban on new infrastructure projects. Since corruption is endemic in public works projects many suspect that government officials and politicians want to push through the projects to take advantage of the last months of PGMA’s administration as well as to generate funds for the election campaign.

In Metro Manila most of the evicted families are being relocated to the Calauan Resettlement site. According to a UPA team who visited there, the site can accommodate some 8,759 units of houses. As of February 4, 2010, 3,866 families have been relocated. The Calauan resettlement site used to be a housing project of former President Joseph Estrada for government employees, such as, teachers and policemen. There were very few takers because the place was simply too far from the city, an estimated 120 kilometers if one starts from the Cubao area and lacks basic services, such as, water and electricity. Now government is relocating urban poor families and expects them to stay there. The urban poor say there is no livelihood and no job opportunities in or near the site; basic facilities of water and electricity are still lacking. Many relocatees have gone back to Manila because they do not want to starve in Calauan.

Evicting the urban poor during this election year and relocating them to Calauan, Laguna or somewhere in Bulacan poses other problems for the urban poor. It is now less than three months from the May 10 election and the local Comelec can prohibit them from voting in the municipalities where they are relocated for lack of the required six months residence. Will they be allowed to vote in the city from where they were evicted? Will they be prohibited from voting because they are no longer residents of the city. Since travel is very expensive (it costs nearly P400 for a round trip from Calauan to Manila and back to Calauan), can they accept transportation money from candidates? If not, they say quite a number of them will not be able to vote.

Many urban poor communities want to make the May 10 election meaningful for them and their children. However, some think the evictions are turning out to be a way for politicians to deprive them of their fundamental right to vote and to frustrate their desire for meaningful political change. They are, therefore, asking government, including the COMELEC, to impose a moratorium on demolitions for this year.

Inhumanity

Commentary
By Denis Murphy
Philippine Daily Inquirer
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20100308-257276/Inhumanity


THE poor woman seen clutching her Santo Niño and weeping bitterly on the front page of the March 5 Inquirer is Angelita Villaruel. Two weeks earlier I praised her courage and that of the other women of Navotas who resisted efforts of the Navotas police to shove aside their human barricade and demolish their houses. The women were water-cannoned and knocked down; they climbed to their feet and were knocked down again; they were clubbed by the police, but still they resisted. For two more weeks they resisted with the help of Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez, Fathers Allan Lopez and Robert Reyes and the lawyer and staff of Urban Poor Associates, CO Multiversity and COPE. Finally, on March 4, they were overwhelmed and their homes destroyed: 100 shanties were knocked down and 243 families (1,200 men, women and mostly children) were left homeless.

The demolition was illegal and all the government officials involved, from the highest in the DPWH down to the demolition crew, knew that, because there was no relocation. The officials’ justifications for the action seem right out of the half-mad, half-wacky world of “Alice in Wonderland.” The mayor of Navotas says he issued the Certificate of Compliance (COC) needed for a demolition because the DPWH told him it had a relocation spot, even when it hadn’t one. The

DPWH then turned around and said they had to demolish the homes because the mayor had ordered them to do so in the COC.

The people now sleep in the rubble. There is nowhere else to go. They ate together the night of the eviction, red eggs and noodles and rice from the parish. Children play on the back hoe and women cry quietly. Two weeks ago the women asked, “How can they beat us? We’re old enough to be their grandmothers?” They now ask, “How can they leave us homeless with our children?”

The day before the eviction the women and their supporters met with government officials at the National Housing Authority. No solution was reached, but at the end of a long, often heated discussion, the government promised to send its people from various agencies to the site the next morning (March 5) to do what was possible to stop the eviction and mitigate the suffering of the poor. The government people were not there when the eviction started the next morning. One or two came later, but were of little help.

Maybe because evictions are so common and the lives of the poor so alien to the better-off members of society, we have forgotten how huge a tragedy evictions are. It is traumatic for children to see men tear down their homes and to see their mothers knocked to the ground by water cannons. Studies show it ordinarily takes five years for a family to recover economically from a demolition. Women grieve as they see the homes, where they had their children, torn down as if they were junk. The men lose work days; there is more sickness requiring medicine. Distant relocation often means the loss of a job or separation from one’s family for long periods of time. They borrow money to see them through the hard times that is hard to repay. Poor women as well as well-off women feel their house is an extension of themselves—as a man feels his professional work is part of himself—so to see their houses torn down is extremely painful.

In the aftermath of “Ondoy” the government talked of the need to evict huge numbers of poor people from waterways, including the Manggahan Floodway and Lupang Arienda. The number of people affected could be between half a million and one million. Is the wider society prepared to allow the poor to suffer on such a scale? In-city and near-city relocation are far less painful than distant relocation. Can we make them the rule? There is sufficient time left to examine every community, big or small, to determine exactly which ones have to move and where it is best to move them. Surely not all the 200,000 families nominated for relocation need to be sent to far-off resettlement camps from which 35 percent to 40 percent will return, as has been the norm in the past.

The urban poor will most likely vote for candidates such as Noynoy Aquino and Mar Roxas, I’m told, who have promised the poor to end illegal forced evictions. Demolitions and the fear of demolitions poison urban poor life. On the other hand, a government that treats its poor decently with a sense of dignity, respect for law and the humanity ordered by the Constitution, will have very devoted followers. The first rule of government, as of doctors, should be “do no harm.” Other considerations can come later.

Denis Murphy works with the Urban Poor Associates. His email address is upa@pldtdsl.net.

Aquino and Roxas Sign Urban Poor Covenant

** NEWS RELEASE ***

06 March 2010. Senators Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and Mar Roxas, the leading candidates in the upcoming polls, signed a covenant with the urban poor Saturday, March 6, at the Del Pan Sports Complex, Tondo, Manila. The covenant is the list of issues submitted to them by the urban poor and housing rights organizations including Urban Poor Associates (UPA), Community Organizers Multiversity (COM), Community Organization of the Philippine Enterprise Foundation (COPE) and UP-All (Urban Poor Alliance).

Before a crowd of ten thousand urban poor people, wearing yellow shirts, from different parts of Metro Manila, the candidates promised to carry out the provisions of the covenant if elected. This promise was followed by big applause. The dome was filled with joyful chants, “Noynoy!” and the big crowd flashing the Laban sign.

UPA observed that this is the first time that so many urban poor group, people’s organization, NGOs and even church groups became involved in Partisan Politics. Present were UP-ALL, the only nationwide federation with 1,200 member organizations, and Koalisyon ng mga Organisadong Samahan sa Maynila (KOSMA), a new federation of urban poor groups in districts 1 and 3 of Tondo in Manila working for land tenure security, local housing board, and basic services for all the poor people.

UPA added that the big crowd and supporting organizations have seen that without political power in the city, urban poor groups are extremely limited. If you do not have political voice you have very little chance to influence urban decision making.

UPA project coordinator Alice Murphy and the master of ceremony of the event said, “This signing of the covenant with a leading presidential candidate is the first in the history of the Philippine Republic. This signifies the candidates’ support of the urban poor and can lead to genuine change in how the government treats the urban poor sector when and if the two assume positions after election.”

The Covenant puts an end to forced eviction. It will not allow any public or private authority to evict families and leave them homeless in the street as is rampantly practiced in the country. It pushes for decent relocation with quality housing, adequate basic services and sustainable livelihood support.

It also calls for more land proclamations and upgrading; more Community Mortgage Programs; doubling of education and health budgets that prioritize poor communities; creation of public works that can generate substantial numbers of jobs for poor people; piped water and legal electricity connections for all poor areas; increase in the housing budget and the extension of land tenure security by all means possible.

“We are very thankful to Sen. Noynoy and Sen. Mar for signing the covenant. The gesture is greatly appreciated. More than that, it gives us, the urban poor, hope in a better future for our children without fear that the new administration will oppress us. Definitely, thousands of urban poor will cast votes in their favor,” said Jeorgie Tenolete President of Baseco Kabalikat and member of KOSMA.

The Covenant includes a post-Ondoy rehabilitation program. (Typhoon Ondoy was a cause of the government demolitions of informal settlers living along esteros, coasts, and riversides.) The rehabilitation program identifies remedies that do not require demolition and eviction as it searches for new ways to extend land tenure security to the poor, so they can live and work in the cities.

Part of the Covenant is the appointment of reform-minded persons to head shelter government agencies. The urban poor believe that if the appointed persons in HUDCC or NHA have really a heart for the poor the agencies will be more responsive, efficient, and effective in delivering housing services to the poor families.

Alice Murphy concluded, “We at UPA (Urban Poor Associates) have been fighting for the rights of the poor for the past 30 years. The signing of this covenant might begin to end the long and painful struggles of the poor to alleviate their sad living condition. We have witnessed indiscriminate demolitions and evictions in urban poor communities. In these challenging times, we see hope in the persons of Senators Aquino and Roxas”.

-30-