Kadamay called for an immediate investigation into the fire that hit Parola Compound, Delpan, Binondo in Manila on May 23. The fire lasted more than 10 hours, starting at 3 p.m. on May 23 and was only extinguished at 1 a.m. the following day. Around 7,123 residents (approximately 2,134 families) lost their homes and are temporarily staying in evacuation centers. Most of them were unable to save any belongings.

Kadamay said the incident is likely linked to the eviction of residents to make way for infrastructure projects that private companies plan to build, in collusion with the Marcos regime.

“It is no secret that Parola is one of the targets of privatization under the Marcos Jr government’s sham ‘development’ projects,” Kadamay said. “Under the current administration, fires have come one after another as demolitions expand in urban poor areas.”

Parola will be hit by the North-South Harbor Bridge Project of comprador bourgeois Enrique Razon Jr. The project will build a 2.02-kilometer bridge connecting Barangay 20 (Parola) to the North Harbor and Barangay 649 (Baseco) to the South Harbor. Authorities announced the project’s start on May 22, a day before the fire in Parola. Residents suspect the project drove the fire to “clear” homes and remove communities so the land where their houses and livelihoods stand can be sold to the company.

Alongside this project is the planned Southern Access Link Expressway (SALEX) which will ease traffic in Manila for the benefit of foreign interests and big corporations. The SALEX project of Ramon Ang’s San Miguel Corporation will lay out a 4-kilometer elevated highway connecting Skyway Stage 3 to Manila North Harbor. It recently drew attention for cutting down hundreds of old trees along Quirino Avenue.

Kadamay concurrently denounced the privatization of land that should have been alloted for decent, affordable, and mass-oriented housing for Filipinos. These housing projects built by the local government under Mayor Isko Moreno only burden residents, the group said. The Binondominium 1 and 2, Tondominium projects, and the Port Town Housing Project of Ferdinand Marcos Jr, are unaffordable for Parola residents, most of whom work in the informal sector with extremely low or no regular income.

“While the Filipino people suffer from rising prices of basic goods, the government turns this (housing) into big business,” the group said.

“Paltry aid is not enough,” Kadamay said. “It cannot cover up the stench of rot in these ‘development projects’ that are fundamentally sham and oppressive. It has long been exposed that Moreno merely uses the image of being poor, yet he is notorious for implementing anti-poor programs. What fire victims clearly need is security of tenure in decent, affordable, and mass-oriented housing where they can earn a living with dignity and safety.”