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“Many informal settlers are struggling to meet their families’ daily basic needs, and are also ineligible for housing loans from the Home Mutual Development Fund (HMDF) and Pag-IBIG.”
They held numerous dialogues with the appropriate government agencies to air their problems such as lack of housing, the expensive amortization and the lack of social services.
“We hope President Rodrigo Duterte would listen to us.”
Support poured in for the urban poor occupying idle houses in Bulacan.
“Homelessness amid rotting houses meant for the poor is unjust.”
“There had to be a scandal about the killing of a Korean to show that there is something wrong with Oplan Tokhang…If this had not happened, the PNP will carry on killing poor Filipinos already hard put in finding justice.”
“What we need are jobs and houses, not coffins.”
“If we allow land use conversions and corporate housing to continue, both rural and urban poor Filipinos will suffer.”
In a dialogue with over a thousand members of Anakpawis Partylist, NHA General Manager Marcelino P. Escalada, Jr and HUDCC Director Angelito Aguila signed unity statements pledging to work toward ending demolitions, commercialized housing and to cater to the basic needs of the urban poor, especially those in relocation sites.
“The present leadership of the various shelter agencies appears to be unable to veer away from “the long and bloody record of past administrations of flushing out so-called informal settlers from their communities to make way for big-ticket business or infrastructure projects usually under the pretext of development, city decongestion or even public safety.” – Anakpawis Rep. Ariel Casilao
Improving the quality of life of the people is the better option than violence.
Sidewalk vendors want to stop being targeted by Manila city's clearing operations.
Many urban poor pin their hopes on President Duterte’s plan to improve the country.
Urban poor groups are calling for a stop to the demolition of informal settler communities, and to hold former President Benigno Aquino III accountable for the destruction and violence.
“I am not stopping, because what we want is the ever-widening ranks of the organized.”
The political cleavages within the family is obviously a consequence of individual persuasions and particular interests. This fragmentation exposed by 'Gapok' makes the symbolic real and emphasizes the micronarratives of poverty.
“The play aims to humanize the struggle of the urban poor. They do not just fight for the sake of resisting the police come demolition day.”
“If the government really wants to uplift us from our impoverished conditions, why did it have to wait for an Apec? They could have helped us long before.”
“The removal and detention of homeless and impoverished residents from where they live and work without due process is a violation of their basic human rights.”
The urban poor group Kadamay said the demolition was meant to pave way for the construction of "Cloverleaf," a high-end business and residential complex owned by a big real estate company Ayala Land.
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