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Technorati Tag: Philippines, Manila, squatters, professional squatters, life along the railway tracks.

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Technorati Tag: Philippines, Manila, squatters, professional squatters, life along the railway tracks.

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Technorati Tag: Philippines, Manila, squatters, professional squatters, life along the railway tracks.

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Technorati Tag: Philippines, Manila, squatters, life along the railway tracks.

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Technorati Tag: Philippines, Manila, squatters, professional squatters, life along the railway tracks.

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Technorati Tag: Philippines, Manila, squatters, life along the railway tracks.

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Technorati Tag: Philippines, Manila, squatters, professional squatters, life along the railway tracks.

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Imagine uprooting 40,000 families — twice the entire population of the municipality of San Juan, Metro Manila — and relocating them elsewhere.

By any stretch of the imagination, this would be a logistical and sociological nightmare. The financial cost alone would also be staggering. This is exactly what is happening in the government program to relocate those who will be displaced by the North Rail Project. The Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) estimates that the government needs to shell out at least P6.6 billion in resettlement costs, but it is not clear where this money is going to come from.

The Senate began last week hearings on the controversial North Rail project, which envisions the rehabilitation of the north line of the old Philippine National Railways (PNR). So far the hearings have focused on the allegedly onerous and illegal provisions of the North Rail contract, inked by the government with a Chinese company.

Little attention has been given to the fact that rebuilding and extending the 80-kilometer railway, a project intended to spur economic growth in Central and Northern Luzon, also means evicting more than 200,000 poor people who live alongside the railroad tracks. This would make it the biggest — and costliest — resettlement project ever undertaken by the Philippine government.

Critics say that the North Rail contract, which costs $503 million or roughly P28 billion at the current exchange rate, is overpriced. More than 80 percent of this will be funded by a loan from the Export-Import Bank of China.

But this price tag does not include the cost of relocation, which will be borne by the Philippine government through the National Housing Authority (NHA) and by the families who will be evicted. A former railway official said that the resettlement expenses were deliberately hidden so these would not reflect on the overall, already bloated, project cost.

Source: Philippine Center For Investigative Journalism.
Read the whole report here.

Technorati Tag: Philippines, Manila, squatters, life along the railway tracks.

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    12 May 2006

    HON. NOLI DE CASTRO
    Vice-President, Republic of the Philippines
    Housing and Urban Development
    Coordinating Council
    6th and 8th Floors, Atrium Building,
    Makati Ave., Makati City

    Dear Mr. Vice-President,

    Greetings in the Lord!

    Poor people living along the railroad tracks from Caloocan to Los Baños have come to me several times to ask my help with their relocation problems. I met with them and government officials including National Housing Authority General Manager Federico Laxa last March 6 and made suggestions based on what was reported there regarding children’s education, family income, distant relocation and excessive concern for cut-off dates and deadlines. People have since reported to me that not much progress has been made in these matters, except that the government in San Antonio, Makati was more open to appeal cases.

    It is clear the situation in the relocation area of Cabuyao is seriously poor. I attach a summary of a study made by the Diocese of Malolos in the North and for our own use in the South. Note that hunger has doubled since people were relocated; the water is not potable without boiling (See Ateneo de Manila test result); there is still no light; family incomes have fallen to P5,568 on average a month from a pre-location level of P6,500-7,500.

    There are no jobs, and only 2 percent of families benefit from livelihood training. Lastly, it is unlikely there will be classes for 4,000 children in the relocation area in June.

    Distant relocation is the prime cause of much of these problems. If people were relocated near their work and schools, for example, family income would not suffer so much and the children could continue in their own schools with the help perhaps of some school bus service.

    It is also sad to hear that poor people are still encouraged by the government to move to the relocation area when it is not ready. People have told me they have been threatened that they will not get a spot in the relocation area if they don’t volunteer to demolish their houses and move out at once. It is illegal to threaten people to waive their constitutional rights to a prepared relocation site.

    Therefore, I am asking you as representative of the government to first assure housing, water, electric, and school facilities before setting definite date for all evictions along the South Rail.

    This will allow the government to complete the unfinished tasks in the Cabuyao relocation site and to look more closely for in-city relocation sites.

    NGOs and people’s groups with whom we work have found close to 200 has. of idle land in the Taguig/Bicutan area, a portion of which (perhaps 10-15 percent) can be used as relocation sites. Obviously, there are objections to use such valuable land for relocationof our poor. We have to look again at our priorities. Do they reflect the Christian social teaching? Some date on these Taguig/Bicutan sites are attached.

    Some will also argue the constructino of the railroad cannot be delayed. However on the North Rail where evictions were also rushed, it now seems there was no need such haste. Although the tracks are clear for over a year, no construction has been started. Let us look closely at the need for rushing.

    We hope we can work with you in the future in improving conditions in the relocation area and in finding alternate in-city relocation. We are grateful for the good things that have been done, but it is not right that the poor bear the major burden of a railroad that will benefit everyone in society.

    This letter will be brought to your office on May 15, 2006 a.m. by the people with whom I have talked. I hope you can meet with them.

    Thank you and God bless!

    Sincerely yours,

    + GAUDENCIO B. CARDINAL ROSALES, D.D.
    Archbishop of Manila

Technorati Tag: Philippines, Manila, squatters, life along the railway tracks.

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What do other bloggers wrote about this problem?

Torn wrote in his/her excellent blog Torn and frayed in Manila the following:

The issue of the railway tracks highlights the absence of any concept of “public goods” in the Philippines. Instead of coherent policy making we have an endless succession of small compromises; none of them are catastrophic in themselves, but the cumulative effect is disastrous. Life along the tracks (where housing, recreation, sanitation, and public transport collide over a few meters of space) is a graphic metaphor for the city as a whole. Public goods in the Philippines are corrupted by private interests at every level, whether that is officials making money from selling overpriced pharmaceuticals in the health system, or teachers demanding baon (lunch/food) in exchange for good grades.

You can read her full entry here.

Technorati Tag: Philippines, Manila, squatters, professional squatters, life along the railway tracks.