Members of Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay)-San Roque protested before the National Housing Authority (NHA) in Quezon City to condemn the agency for its widespread disqualification of the urban poor from its housing program today, August 30. They are residents from Sitio San Roque, Barangay Bagong Pag-asa, Quezon City who are opposing the divisive program of the housing agency.

The group said “the entitlements laid down by the NHA through the Project Inter-Agency Committee (PIAC) cause discrimination and division (among the poor).” The requirements it laid down are divisive and only cause deeper discrimination against the San Roque residents.

The PIAC is an NHA committee that oversees the coordination and implementation of housing projects, especially those involving resettlement and socialized housing.

Ka Mimi Doringo, Kadamay national office secretary general and Koalisyong Makabayan senatorial candidate joined the action. She said during the few years of San Roque’s struggle, almost everything that the NHA offered to the residents appear unjust and inhumane.

Doringo expressed solidarity with Kadamay-San Roque in the call to scrap NHA entitlements and ensure the right to housing for all.

“The government must fulfill its responsibility for decent, affordable mass housing for all,” Kadamay-San Roque said. The group also called for the return of the housing service fund this 2025 in order to build socialized housing for the poor.

Inklusibo, a group that supports the rights of those in the informal sector, said there are still 3.8 million Filipinos living in informal settlements while 4.5 million are homeless. Concurrently, the backlog of the Marcos regime reaches 6.5 million housing units.