Planned QCCBD to displace over 15,000 families

Over the next few years, the construction of the planned Quezon City Central Business District (CBD) is expected to displace over 15,000 families from various areas in the North and East Triangles, where the ambitious building program is set to start soon. The National Housing Authority (NHA) estimates the number of residents facing demolition to reach more than 9,500 households from Barangay Pag-asa; over 2,600 households from Barangay Central; over 2,200 households from Barangay Pinyahan; and around 500 households from Project 6. All four sites are government-owned land, according to the agency, so the families currently occupying the areas are illegal settlers.
View Quezon City Central Business District in a larger map Affected settlers are opposing the demolition of their houses, saying this runs counter to the promises made by President Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III when he was still campaigning for the country’s top post. "May pag-unlad daw na magaganap dito sa lugar, pero hindi naman kami kasama," said Jocy Lopez, president of the North Triangle chapter of Anakpawis partylist group. (They say development is coming to this place, but we’re not included.) On March 6, during the campaign for the May 2010 elections, Aquino and his running mate Mar Roxas signed a “covenant with the urban poor" in Tondo where they vowed: “We will not allow any public or private authority to evict families and leave them homeless in the street. The government must provide decent relocation, near-city or in-city, if possible, quality housing, adequate basic services and jobs." Aquino added, “We will not tolerate a situation where wage earners have to stay in the city to work while the other members of the family stay in distant relocation centers… We will not institutionalize such situations by building sites in the city where they will live apart from their families. As the work force in the cities, the poor, up to the extent possible, should be given the opportunity to stay in the cities." A 2009 NHA census of the families living in Sitio San Roque I and II, a 30-hectare settlement within Barangay Pag-asa, showed that over 50 percent of the wage-earners there earn a living within Metro Manila. Relocation plans The NHA has made long-term plans for the relocation of the informal settlers in San Roque to two sites in Rodriguez, Rizal: Southville 8-C in Barangay San Isidro, and Kasiglahan Village I-B in Barangay San Jose. However, no definite plans have been made for the relocation of the residents in the other areas affected by the QCCBD. In the last week of September, a growing number of affected have applied with the NHA to begin the process of voluntary relocation, according to reports on GMA’s 24 Oras. The NHA had to deploy more staff to their relocation centers to process the increased paperwork, as hundreds of families applied for relocation in a single day.
"‘Yung iba namang gustong magbalik probinsya, kasama pa rin kayo dito sa programa namin," said Soc Salamat, NHA community relations chief. As long as a family is qualified for relocation, the NHA will welcome them with "open arms," said Salamat. However, the resettlement options do not cover nearly 20 per cent or about 1,700 families in San Roque, who were deemed ineligible because they may have arrived in the area after the NHA conducted its latest census in January 2009, explained NHA officials. Central business district The QCCBD, a P22-billion joint venture between the NHA and Ayala Land Inc., is part of a development plan to turn Quezon City into a “world class Asian city," the NHA said in a project brief. The project was initiated during the terms of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, now a member of the Lower House representing Pampanga’s second district, and former QC Mayor Feliciano Belmonte, now a QC congressman and House Speaker as well. Arroyo’s Executive Order 620, issued in 2007, pushed for “the development of [the North and East Triangles] into a highly integrated transportation, environment, commercial and residential model," creating “an urban development model [for] hubs of intense economic growth." Under Belmonte, the QC government bared plans to extensively develop the North and East Triangle, comprising 250 hectares, into a commercial district. Last September 23, a large-scale demolition began in San Roque to make way for the QCCBD but affected residents fought back, causing a seven-hour standoff with the NHA demolition team and members of the Philippine National Police. At least 14 were injured and traffic was snarled in EDSA for hours because of the violent confrontation. The next day, President Aquino ordered a halt to the forced eviction and told the NHA to suspend the demolitions until the housing agency can “provide a comprehensive plan that will ensure orderliness in the implementation of relocation activities." The land occupied by the Veterans Memorial Medical Center and the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife are also slated for development as part of the QCCBD. However, the possible relocation of the VMMC and the park is “not a priority at the moment," said an NHA official. —JV/YA, GMANews.TV