Railway families ask for alternative relocation site

Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo and Rodriguez’ Rizal Mayor Pedro Cuerpo joined grassroots organizations are demanding that government find alternatives to its policy of relocating poor people to remote sites.

The Bishop and the Mayor joined grassroots organization leaders in a press conference at the Arzobispado de Manila on Sept. 10, 2007.

Railway families who are facing imminent threat of evictions due to the Northrail-Southrail Linkage Project are pressing the government to arrange their relocation to nearby sites like Rodriguez, and not to places two or more hours drive outside Metro Manila which are far from their jobs.

Mayor Cuerpo has certified that the Municipality of Rodriguez in Rizal is willing to accept families living along the railroad tracks from Sampaloc up to Sta. Cruz, Manila.

As their relocation to distant sites where life is extremely hard loomed, Samahang Apektadong Pamilya sa Riles (SAPAR) have taken initiatives to find alternative relocation sites for some 1,500 families. Despite many appeals, the National Housing Authority (NHA) has refused to accept the Montalban relocation site.

The group also expressed admiration for the consistent support for the poor of Bishop Pabillo, who chairs the CBCP Housing Committee. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines has called the attention of the government in its pastoral statements on the homeless (1997) and on the nation’s housing problems (2007) to stop uncaring demolitions as they only move the poor families from danger zone to death zone.

The government’s effort to decongest Metro Manila by relocating the poor people in distant places is simply pathetic, according to Urban Poor Associates (UPA), a non-government organization that concentrates on evictions and slum upgrading.

Results of a survey done by UPA indicated that poor people in distant relocation sites would likely go back to Metro Manila due to the following issues: Lack of electricity and portable water, livelihood and job problems, high cost of commodities and transportation, payments of units allotted, problem on security, and poor facilities.

Lawyer Bienvenido Salinas II, coordinator of UPA’s legal unit St. Thomas Moore Law Center said the law requires that families evicted from government land be given decent relocation. “The Constitution clearly stated in its Article XIII (Section 10) that no resettlement of urban poor dwellers should be undertaken without adequate consultation with them and the communities where they are to be relocated.”###