Mga Ulat Koresponsal:
Parola Development Plan:
Sham housing program

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

Divisive and devious is what the urban poor think of the Arroyo regime�s housing scheme. In its attempt to drive the them out of every inch of Metro Manila, the regime formed a �socialized housing� and relocation program to systematically eliminate the urban poor from the national capital region and pave the way for the implementation of the mothballed �development projects� that cover their communities. The projects include, among others, port modernization, the Pasig River Rehabilitation Project, road widening and the North Bay Boulevard Business Park, all of them fully funded by imperialist institutions and reserved for the use of foreign monopoly corporations.

Parola

After �Edsa 3� took place in May 2001, the Arroyo regime brandished the �socialized housing� scheme in the strongholds of the ousted Estrada regime�s supporters. Its aim was to thoroughly reduce Estrada�s support base. One of the targets was the urban poor community in Parola Estate. On September 3, 2003, Gloria Arroyo signed the Parola Development Plan (PDP) into law.

The Parola Estate in Barangay 20, Tondo, Manila is a 15-hectare parcel of land along the mouth of the Pasig River. It will be affected by the Pasig River Rehabilitation Program on one side, and the port modernization project on the other. The railroad going to the Manila International Cargo Terminal cuts across the community. Radial 10, a road widening project, will also cut across Parola.

More than 18,500 families are cramped in subhuman conditions in Parola. Each family occupies an average eight square meter lot. The community does not have a decent water and electricity system. Other basic services are wanting. Criminality and other antisocial activities run rampant especially since syndicates proliferate in the area.

A big majority of the residents are semi-proletarians who eke out a living as cargo loaders in the nearby port or as peddlers in Divisoria or engage in odd jobs just to tide them over from hunger. Many of them are driven to commit antisocial acts just to survive.

Devious program

Because of the large number of residents, the 9.6 hectares allotted from the 15 hectares covered by the community is woefully inadequate to accommodate everyone. The regime has come up with a scheme to divide the community into the few �legitimate� and the far more numerous �illegitimate� residents. On September 5, 2003, the regime rewarded Certificates for Eligibility for Lot Allocation (CELA) to a mere 100 families that were dubbed �legitimate,� while the rest were served eviction notices and threatened with demolition. The regime bribed a number of local leaders, further dividing the community. Thus, the regime was able to win over certain families to support the PDP.

Nevertheless, the CELA is no guarantee that the holder will eventually be given a land title.

Moreover, the residents will have to buy the lots that their shanties have long occupied and pay a huge amount for such a small parcel of land. A ten square meter lot, the smallest offered, is worth P8,000. To make the payments look small, the regime decreed that residents may pay in installment at the rate of P67.14 a month for ten years. The price of the largest lot (32 square meters) is P25,000. Its takers will have to shell out P213.63 monthly, also for ten years. This excludes expenses for rebuilding the house. Even if the urban poor do get the lots and are able to rebuild their houses, it will not take long before they face foreclosure or are forced to resell them because of their precarious livelihood and insufficient income.

Other residents will be dumped in relocation sites in Cavite and Bulacan far from their sources of income and where conditions are just as bad if not worse. Most of these locations have already been given out to other urban poor.

The need for unity

In the Parola Development Plan, small-scale demolitions will be implemented in the name of reblocking, ostensibly for creating new streets and widening existing ones, setting up a water system and estuaries and barangay facilities. With these incremental demolitions, the ranks of the urban poor are divided, confrontations are reduced to a minimum, and the regime is able to avoid inciting the anger of the majority and prevent them from mobilizing. The regime hopes that it would not take long before it is able to evict the majority of the urban poor from their shanties without much resistance.

In the face of these tactics, it becomes even more urgent for the whole community to close ranks. They will need to fight off the threats to their livelihood and homes�whether demolition is imminent or still a relatively far-off threat. The urban poor who are affected now or will be in the future, have to unite firmly, repudiate those who conspire against their fellow urban poor, and further strengthen their organization and struggle.

21 January 2004
English Edition

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