The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) strongly condemns the violence that marred recent attempts to demolish the homes of about 1,000 families situated within the Laperal Compound of Makati City, Manila, on 28th April, 2011. The demolitions were ordered by the Mayor of Makati after the Makati City Government classified the informal settlement a danger zone following a fire that occurred in the area 8 days previously. Residents who attempted to resist the demolitions were met with force. The practice of forced eviction constitutes a gross violation of human rights, in particular the right to adequate housing. COHRE is deeply concerned about reports that State officials and the police may be responsible for such serious human rights abuses.
The situation is reflective of an alarming trend whereby residents of urban poor areas affected by fires are subsequently prevented from returning to their homes and forcibly evicted, without provision of alternative housing or sufficient compensation, further aggravating the losses already encountered. COHRE calls for an urgent and independent investigation to be conducted into all attempts at forced evictions following fires in urban poor areas in Manila to ensure that all those responsible for human rights violations are held fully accountable.
Based on the information COHRE received, the demolitions of April 28th were in violation of numerous national and international human rights obligations of the Government of the Philippines. No court order was issued sanctioning the demolitions and evictions, and no consultation, negotiation, or advance warning was provided to affected residents. Residents attempting to resist eviction to protect their homes were met with a violent response. Government resources were used to forcibly evict residents living on privately owned land. Adequate housing has not been provided to those who were forced to leave the area, and compensation provided was not sufficient to enable those affected to live in adequate housing elsewhere in the city.
Where those affected by evictions are unable to provide for themselves, the Government is obliged to take all appropriate measures, to the maximum of its available resources, to ensure that adequate alternative housing, resettlement or access to productive land, as the case may be, is available. COHRE calls for an on-site socialized housing scheme to be provided for affected residents of the fire and subsequent demolitions in Laperal, and for alternative adequate housing to be provided to those families who volunteer to be relocated.
COHRE strongly condemns the use of violence against residents and particularly against women. Violence against persons who try to protect their homes against illegal forced evictions breaches a number of international human rights standards the Philippines are obliged to follow, including the right to security of the person guaranteed under Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
As a State Party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Government of the Philippines, including all State organs, is obliged to respect, protect and fulfill the right to adequate housing, as guaranteed under Article 11(1) ICESCR and to refrain from the practice of forced evictions. Forced evictions can only be justified in exceptional circumstances, after genuine consultation with those affected, provision of legal redress, and must never cause homelessness. Such exceptional circumstances generally only exist where evictions are necessary in the public interest, but not where land is sought by private developers. Even in those rare cases where eviction is considered justified, it must be carried out in strict compliance with international human rights law and in accordance with general principles of reasonableness and proportionality.
Authorities are obliged to give options for adequate alternative accommodation or sufficient compensation that enable those affected to find adequate accommodation elsewhere. Adequate alternative accommodation or compensation must enable those affected to live in adequate housing conditions and to continue their livelihoods with as little disruption as possible.
These provisions were not adhered to. The actions of April 28th in Makati therefore appear to constitute violations of international law.
The Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992 (RA 7279) lays down conditions which must be fulfilled before evictions and/or demolitions are carried out. The rehabilitation and development of Makati, or any other area of Manila should not proceed unless and until the basic human rights accorded to the urban poor guaranteed by the 1987 Constitution are protected. RA 7279 states that eviction or demolition may only be allowed under the following exceptional situations: 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. This provision is clearly directed at publicly owned spaces. Privately owned property such as Laperal cannot be designated as a danger zone area under this provision.
RA 7279 also states that there must be a court order for eviction and demolition. RA 7279 requires that those whose houses are subject to demolition should be notified in advance of eviction. It also compels consultation with and relocation of the affected citizens. Without compliance, there must be no evictions or demolitions. Evictions should not result in individuals being rendered homeless or vulnerable to the violation of other human rights.
These provisions were not adhered to. The actions carried out on April 28th in Makati therefore appear to constitute breaches of national law, including the 1987 Constitution and RA 7279.
Everyone has a right to the city, thus demolition of informal settlements in the city must either be stopped, or the poor provided adequate housing in the city. The poor living in the city must be given security of land tenure or, at least, a secure and affordable humane housing. Urban development planning should consider the right of the urban poor to live in the city. This includes long term renters, who must not be deprived of their human rights and who must not be excluded from accessing restitution to housing rights violations, including the right to adequate housing at relocation sites.
Constitutional limits on power, a key feature of democracy, requires adherence to the rule of law. When exceptional circumstances dictate that evictions should take place, due process must be followed. The Constitution of the Philippines, Republic Act No. 7279 and a number of binding international treaties all provide for minimum standards regarding evictions and relocations that must be adhered to.
The rule of law is the supreme check on political power used against people's rights. In light of the above, COHRE urges the Government of the Philippines to ensure that any future evictions are carried out only in exceptional circumstances, only when absolutely necessary, and in full accordance with national and international law.
For further details, please contact: Ben Rutledge, Ben@cohre.org ,
Manila, Philippines
May 10th, 2011
Showing posts with label Urban Development. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Urban Development. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Commentary : It’s up to the President
By Denis Murphy
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Posted date: April 04, 2011
“THE BEST laid plans of mice and men often go astray,” wrote the Scottish poet Robert Burns. He had spent the afternoon plowing his fields and by accident had destroyed the home of a small mouse and its family. He watched them flee in terror. In the poem he shows compassion for the poor mice who must now spend their winter in the cold, instead of in the warm underground home the mouse had planned for them. With just a few small changes the poem can be understood to be about poor people evicted from their homes and about all poor people and their plans.
A plan was made last Dec. 23 by the powerful (including President Aquino and his Cabinet members) and the weak (the urban poor and their allies) to bring together the best minds in the country, in order to solve one of its main problems, namely, the increasing number and pauperization of our urban poor people. By mid-March the plan was slowly unraveling.
The plan had started with a moratorium on all evictions declared by the President, in order to give time for the parties to the agreement to study the strengths and weaknesses of several land and housing proposals of the poor. The results would be discussed by a panel of experts appointed by the President from government, civil society (such as Mapua Institute of Technology), the Church, independent experts (architect Felino “Jun” Palafox, Dr. Esteban Godilano and Mary Racelis) and urban poor leaders. The panel would recommend to the President the actions they thought he should take on the proposals.
In brief, the poor asked that the families living on Manila esteros, Lupang Arenda, R-10 Road, Manggahan Floodway, Laguna Lake, Navotas Fishport, Baseco and Parola be allowed to stay where they are and that the communities be upgraded and the people be housed in a decent fashion. The plan would benefit 280,000 poor families who are living in these areas, well over one million men, women and children. The plan harms no one.
Why is the plan not working? There is more than enough guilt to go around. The failure of the appointed committee to play a key role is one reason. The committee never met. The members were never notified of their appointments. Perhaps, due to the absence of this prestigious body, agency heads and others didn’t come to meetings when invited. The best minds never met together and never had a chance to cut to the heart of the problems faced.
Also as often happens in governments and other bodies the people in charge are reluctant to give up old ways of doing things, even when these ways have proved ineffective. They are guilty of what can be called “intellectual laziness.” Albert Einstein wrote, “the greatest inconvenience of peoples and nations is the laziness with which they attempt to find the solutions to their problems.”
A good example of this laziness at work can be seen in the government’s ways of relocating evicted families to far distant sites, in the case of Calauan, Laguna, up to 100 kilometers away. There are no jobs, so regularly 30-40 percent of the families return to the city and to slum areas. Also the government never recovers the money spent on these distant housing efforts, because the people don’t want to be there, don’t have much money and don’t care to use the little money they have to amortize the lots and houses they received. Billions of pesos have been lost. The government cannot create thousands of jobs in wilderness places. By contrast poor families who found a solution through the Community Mortgage Program, a solution they chose, repay government at a rate of over 70 percent. Why does government insist on following its thoughtlessly cruel and fiscally unwise practice of distant relocation? As in so many things Einstein may be right: the great obstacle to development is intellectual laziness. The old ways haven’t worked. Let’s try new ways, the people suggest.
The people themselves are part of the problem. Sometimes they are stubborn; sometimes they are not sure what they want, and they aren’t well organized. The Department of Interior and Local Government which was asked by the President to coordinate the whole work has been caught in a political whirlpool of intrigue and suspicion.
Some people felt that guilt for the program’s seeming failure reached even to the President, because he didn’t appear to back the program with the power of his office.
But then the tide seemed to turn, slowly at first but in a determined way, thanks to the efforts of many inside and outside government who see value in the people’s plans.
Among its first recommendations to the President, the study group (TWG or Technical Working Group) advised the government to give 1,000 families in the Navotas Fishport the land they live on. It recommended that an executive order of a former president be scrapped, paving the way for families along the Manggahan Floodway and in Lupang Arenda to enjoy land tenure security and upgrading. It recommended Baseco be fully developed for the people living there. This is in line with the President’s promise to the poor to upgrade all the lands proclaimed.
More recently the TWG has recommended that buildings designed by Palafox Associates architects be built on certain Manila esteros, provided it is physically possible to do so. Private architects say such construction is very possible. People are optimistic.
It is up to the President. It would be of tremendous significance if President Aquino backed the plans suggested by the poor people, especially since many powerful persons do not want him to support such plans. It might become the norm.
(Denis Murphy works with the Urban Poor Associates. His email address is upa@pldtdsl.net.)
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Posted date: April 04, 2011
“THE BEST laid plans of mice and men often go astray,” wrote the Scottish poet Robert Burns. He had spent the afternoon plowing his fields and by accident had destroyed the home of a small mouse and its family. He watched them flee in terror. In the poem he shows compassion for the poor mice who must now spend their winter in the cold, instead of in the warm underground home the mouse had planned for them. With just a few small changes the poem can be understood to be about poor people evicted from their homes and about all poor people and their plans.
A plan was made last Dec. 23 by the powerful (including President Aquino and his Cabinet members) and the weak (the urban poor and their allies) to bring together the best minds in the country, in order to solve one of its main problems, namely, the increasing number and pauperization of our urban poor people. By mid-March the plan was slowly unraveling.
The plan had started with a moratorium on all evictions declared by the President, in order to give time for the parties to the agreement to study the strengths and weaknesses of several land and housing proposals of the poor. The results would be discussed by a panel of experts appointed by the President from government, civil society (such as Mapua Institute of Technology), the Church, independent experts (architect Felino “Jun” Palafox, Dr. Esteban Godilano and Mary Racelis) and urban poor leaders. The panel would recommend to the President the actions they thought he should take on the proposals.
In brief, the poor asked that the families living on Manila esteros, Lupang Arenda, R-10 Road, Manggahan Floodway, Laguna Lake, Navotas Fishport, Baseco and Parola be allowed to stay where they are and that the communities be upgraded and the people be housed in a decent fashion. The plan would benefit 280,000 poor families who are living in these areas, well over one million men, women and children. The plan harms no one.
Why is the plan not working? There is more than enough guilt to go around. The failure of the appointed committee to play a key role is one reason. The committee never met. The members were never notified of their appointments. Perhaps, due to the absence of this prestigious body, agency heads and others didn’t come to meetings when invited. The best minds never met together and never had a chance to cut to the heart of the problems faced.
Also as often happens in governments and other bodies the people in charge are reluctant to give up old ways of doing things, even when these ways have proved ineffective. They are guilty of what can be called “intellectual laziness.” Albert Einstein wrote, “the greatest inconvenience of peoples and nations is the laziness with which they attempt to find the solutions to their problems.”
A good example of this laziness at work can be seen in the government’s ways of relocating evicted families to far distant sites, in the case of Calauan, Laguna, up to 100 kilometers away. There are no jobs, so regularly 30-40 percent of the families return to the city and to slum areas. Also the government never recovers the money spent on these distant housing efforts, because the people don’t want to be there, don’t have much money and don’t care to use the little money they have to amortize the lots and houses they received. Billions of pesos have been lost. The government cannot create thousands of jobs in wilderness places. By contrast poor families who found a solution through the Community Mortgage Program, a solution they chose, repay government at a rate of over 70 percent. Why does government insist on following its thoughtlessly cruel and fiscally unwise practice of distant relocation? As in so many things Einstein may be right: the great obstacle to development is intellectual laziness. The old ways haven’t worked. Let’s try new ways, the people suggest.
The people themselves are part of the problem. Sometimes they are stubborn; sometimes they are not sure what they want, and they aren’t well organized. The Department of Interior and Local Government which was asked by the President to coordinate the whole work has been caught in a political whirlpool of intrigue and suspicion.
Some people felt that guilt for the program’s seeming failure reached even to the President, because he didn’t appear to back the program with the power of his office.
But then the tide seemed to turn, slowly at first but in a determined way, thanks to the efforts of many inside and outside government who see value in the people’s plans.
Among its first recommendations to the President, the study group (TWG or Technical Working Group) advised the government to give 1,000 families in the Navotas Fishport the land they live on. It recommended that an executive order of a former president be scrapped, paving the way for families along the Manggahan Floodway and in Lupang Arenda to enjoy land tenure security and upgrading. It recommended Baseco be fully developed for the people living there. This is in line with the President’s promise to the poor to upgrade all the lands proclaimed.
More recently the TWG has recommended that buildings designed by Palafox Associates architects be built on certain Manila esteros, provided it is physically possible to do so. Private architects say such construction is very possible. People are optimistic.
It is up to the President. It would be of tremendous significance if President Aquino backed the plans suggested by the poor people, especially since many powerful persons do not want him to support such plans. It might become the norm.
(Denis Murphy works with the Urban Poor Associates. His email address is upa@pldtdsl.net.)
Friday, October 2, 2009
Urban Development Plan answer to storm-related tragedies?
09/30/2009 | 08:47 PM
22 flood victims lie in state at Bagong Silangan evacuation center
09/30/2009 | 12:49 PM
22 flood victims lie in state at Bagong Silangan evacuation center
09/30/2009 | 12:49 PM
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