Urban Poor First On-Site Shelter through People’s Plan

19 February 2014. President Benigno Aquino III graced the presentation of the first urban on-site medium-rise building model unit through a people’s plan today at Claro M. Recto High School, Legarda, Sampaloc, Manila. It was also attended by DILG Secretary Mar Roxas, DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman, DPWH Secretary Rogelio Singson, Urban Poor Associates the partner NGO for the project and Nagkakaisang Mamamayan ng Legarda, the people’s organization and the beneficiaries of the micro Medium Rise-Building.

The first urban poor on-site housing is a national government program in pursuit of providing decent housing in the city for poor people instead of relocating them far from the city when there is need of removing them from danger areas. The housing design was conceptualized by the green architect Felino Palafox and put into work by Architect Albert Zambrano of Mapua Institute of Technology, School of Architecture. The house is set three meters back from the estero. It is energy efficient and resistant to floods, liquefaction and earth shaking.

UPA point out that people build the city as this is the first housing that was made possible through a people's plan, the people secured the architects who made the plan and the people worked with the government to get all the licenses and funding. Some 105 families will benefit.

Filomena Cinco, President of Nagkakaisang Mamamayan ng Legarda said, "We are very happy that finally after five years our homes are built along the Estero De San Miguel, where we have lived for more than 20 years. Finally, our pains, tears and struggled turned into sweet victory-- the model housing unit is an inspiration for all informal settlers dreaming of decent and affordable shelter."

Cinco added, "We will do everything to make our community peaceful, healthy, and clean to continue become a model of hope that things can be done as long as we, poor people are united and organized."

Alicia Murphy, field director of UPA said, "pushing for on-site housing took a lot of hard work of the people's organization. NML unity was tested and harassed through those years of struggle to attain land tenure security.  This work shows that housing can be done in the city through collaboration between people's group and the government. The project reflects the vision of the Late Secretary Jesse Robredo and has been whole-heatedly supported by Secretary Mar Roxas, Secretary Dinky Soliman and President Noynoy Aquino."

Murphy concluded, “we are hopeful that this housing will be imitated in other urban poor areas and in the three priority esteros, Estero de Quiapo, Estero de San Sebastian and Estero de San Miguel-P.Casal, so that we can have a healthier workforce through decent and affordable housing."

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Gov’t Sees Economic Growth Despite Yolanda’s Devastation

 (The Philippine Star) | Updated December 18, 2013 - 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines - The economy should grow by 7.0 percent this year and between 6.5 and 7.5 percent next year despite the devastation caused by a killer typhoon and an earthquake, the government said yesterday.

Economic planning minister Arsenio Balisacan said that while losses in agriculture caused by Super Typhoon Yolanda were expected to affect growth in the near term, rebuilding would likely make up for it further down the line.

He said 2013 gross domestic product growth should hit the “upper limit” of the government‘s 6.0-7.0 percent target, forecasts made before Yolanda hit last month and a 7.1-magnitude quake struck Central Visayas in October.

“Without all these crises, we could have achieved 7.3-7.5 percent growth this year,” Balisacan said in a statement.

Nevertheless, he said the Philippines should continue its hot streak of five consecutive quarters of at least 7.0 percent growth.

“For 2014, we forecast growth to be in the 6.5-7.5 percent range.”

Headlines ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1

60,000 homes

Meanwhile, Vice President Jejomar Binay said the government will construct at least 60,000 homes for Yolanda victims.

Binay, who is also chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), told The STAR the target is to build 40,000 housing units in 2014 and 20,000 in 2015.

He said the National Housing Authority, Home Development Mutual Fund or Pag-IBIG Fund and the HUDCC would jointly undertake the construction.

Binay said they have coordinated with Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Panfilo Lacson on the participation of the housing sector to rebuild and resettle Yolanda victims.

Urban poor groups, however, said Yolanda survivors should be consulted first concerning rebuilding efforts.

In a forum held at the Ateneo University yesterday, Jeorgie Tenolete, president of Kabalikat sa Kaunlaran in Baseco, Tondo said resettlement sites should not be crowded and jobs should be a priority.

“Barangays of different affected areas must do an assessment and planning for their short- and long-term rebuilding activities together with the residents. Funders and the national government can now directly provide funds to barangays based on their identified needs. The barangay must allow active participation of its constituents so that all funds for rehabilitation will be carefully accounted for by the community,” Celia Santos, one of the speakers and advocacy officer for Urban Development and Housing Act Amendments said.

The Urban Poor Alliance, Urban Poor Associates (UPA), Community Organizers Multiversity and other people’s organizations said the proper approach is “build back better in disaster areas.”

“Recovery must promote fairness and equity. Government must ensure that in the reconstruction process, ordinary citizens and their communities will be involved,” they said.

Alice Murphy, UPA field director, said the government should adopt the best practices in reconstruction to ensure that Yolanda survivors are “served with integrity” and their needs are given priority. 

19 schools

Apart from building 159 bunkhouse units for 3,816 families, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said it would also repair 18 schools and a regional office of the Department of Education (DepEd) damaged by Yolanda.

In a statement, DPWH Eastern Visayas regional director Rolando Asis said the schools are in Tacloban City and the DepEd regional office in Palo, Leyte.

The 18 schools are the Caiba-an Elementary School, Kapangi-an Central School, Dr. A. P. Bañez Elementary School at Barangay 77, V&G Elementary School in Barangay 109, San Jose Central School, San Jose National High School, Marasbaras Central School, Rizal Central School, Sagkahan National High School, Lorenzo Daa Elementary School, Sto. Niño SPED Center, Tacloban National High School, Lucio Vivero Memorial School, B. Bolante Elementary School, Cabalawan Elementary School, Bagacay Elementary School, Marasbaras National High School and Salvacion Elementary School.

DPWH has started clearing the damaged schools and conducted an assessment of the needed materials.

Seeds for farmers

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said it had begun supplying farmers with emergency seed supplies that will allow them to collect a harvest in March and April.

FAO’s representative in the Philippines, Rodrigue Vinet, said that without the harvest, vulnerable farmers would not have been able to harvest rice for almost a year -- until October or November 2014.

“Seed distributions have come at a critical moment,” he said in a statement.

FAO said more than 1,000 farmers from the hardest-hit areas will each receive 40-kilogram bag of seeds.

It said it was also delivering bags of fertilizer as well as tools and small irrigation water pumps.

No holiday break

Employees of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Yolanda-hit areas will have no holiday break to ensure there will be no interruption in the distribution of relief goods to affected families.

DSWD Secretary Corazon Soliman said there would be a shifting of employees in Field Offices 6, 7 and 8 on Christmas and New Year.

The DSWD is also beefing up its personnel with the deployment of additional personnel from Quezon City.  – Jun Elias, Rainier Allan Ronda, Rhodina Villanueva, Evelyn Macairan

Urban poor want pork retained

Letter to the Editor
Philippine Daily Inquirer

10:51 pm | Friday, October 18th, 2013

How can government leaders afford to enrich themselves with public money?

More or less, 21 million informal settlers are struggling to survive because they don’t have jobs or access to healthcare, education, potable water, etc. Meanwhile, those who are supposed to help them, as a matter of law and duty, are stealing billions of pesos that are intended to liberate them from poverty. Without the whistle-blowers, the extent of their plunder would have not been revealed. We have always suspected so much taxpayer money was being lost to corruption, but we never imagined the extent revealed so far.

Prominent politicians have been implicated in the pork barrel and Malampaya Fund scam, as well as in the DAP (Disbursement Accelaration Program) scandal. But now the blame has shifted to President Aquino. And aside from the pressure to abolish the pork barrel, there are now calls for his resignation, even threats to impeach him.

What happens now to those who stole people’s money? President Aquino is not perfect, but he is definitely not a thief. Are we really serious in our effort to rid government of corruption? If we are, then we should start presenting solutions so public money doesn’t fall into greedy hands. If the President has any explaining to do, so be it but, first of all, let’s go after and punish the thieves.

A week ago we gathered leaders from the Tondo area, from the  esteros  and relocation sites to get their opinion on the pork barrel. Unlike most of the elite that joined the Million People March in Luneta, they feel the pork barrel can stay as long as there are checks and balances to ensure that money allocated for development would be spent properly. They asked: “If you remove the pork, where will the poor get the money to spend for emergencies?”

The people suggested that fund allocation and implementation of the projects be removed from the hands of the legislators and new mechanisms be set up for close monitoring of the disbursements and projects. Fund allocations should also be made public so that the intended beneficiaries can monitor the disbursements in their respective areas.

—ALICIA GENTOLIA MURPHY,
Urban Poor Associates,
urbanpoorassociates@ymail.com

Urban Poor Ask Supreme Court to Order Compliance of RA 7279 in Manila Bay Clean Up

Press Release

March 31, 2011

Urban Poor Associates (UPA) filed on Thursday before the Supreme Court a motion to issue order for compliance with Republic Act 7279 prior to demolition and/or eviction of informal settlers. This is an appeal on the high court’s decision on the implementation of the Manila Bay clean up rendered last February 15.

The Court orders Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to come up with the lists of informal settlers living along the Pasig-Marikina-San Juan Rivers, the NCR (Parañaque-Zapote, Las Piñas) rivers and the Navotas-Malabon-Tullahan-Tenejeros Rivers and the LGUs outside Metro Manila for the list of informal settlers along Meycauayan-Marilao-Obando (Bulacan) rivers, the Talisay (Bataan) River, the Imus (Cavite) river, the Laguna De Bay and Connecting waterways.

The high Court even set a timeline up to December 31, 2012 and 2015 for the full implementation of the demolition of houses and removal of the informal settlers.

However, UPA and other other movants Community Organizers Multiversity (COM), Community Organization of the Philippine Enterprise (COPE), Kabalikat sa Pagpapaunlad ng Baseco (KABALIKAT), Ugnayan Lakas ng mga Apektadong Pamilya sa Baybaying Ilog Pasig (ULAP) and residents along Radial 10 (R10) Boulevard in Tondo, Manila, found the court’s resolution silent as to the observance and compliance of the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992 (RA 7279) which lays down requisites before eviction and/or demolition is enforced.

In a fifteen-page motion, the urban poor group through their lawyer, Ritche Esponilla, stressed that the effort in the rehabilitation of the Manila Bay should not be at loggerheads with the basic [human] rights accorded to the underprivileged and homeless citizens guaranteed by the 1987 Constitution itself.

RA 7279 requires that urban poor whose houses are subject to demolition should be notified 30 days before. It also compels consultation and relocation to the affected underprivileged citizens, and without such compliance there must be no evictions or demolitions.

UPA said with the SC decision shanties of 129,606 urban poor families surrounding Manila Bay are in danger of being demolished without relocation.

"There is an urgent need that the Court issues an order for compliance of requisites set out by RA 7279 prior to demolition and/or eviction to protect the housing rights of the poor. While the clean up is valuable it must not come at the expense of displacing thousands of urban poor families already marginalized by society,” Atty. Esponilla said.

“We must also remember that the high Court already recognized that this endeavor (preservation of Manila Bay) cannot go against the right of those whose dwellings are in danger of being torn down. In its ruling on October 2009, it emphasized that it does not give the MMDA and other concerned government agencies the power to evict any individual from his or her home without first giving notice,” he added.

UPA said President Benigno Aquino III tasked Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to form a technical working group (TWG) that would study issues/concerns of the urban poor. This TWG is already working.

UPA field director Alicia Murphy concluded, “The waterways dwellers are working hard to implement their dream of on-site housing through the TWG. We even came up with a housing proposal along waterways designed by Palafox architects that would not interfere with the cleaning of Manila Bay and the Pasig river. We believe that efforts on restoring the beauty of Manila Bay must be equipped with a comprehensive and decent housing program for the welfare of the poor. In this way, we will be able to preserve lives – the life of the poor and the life of the Bay. -30-