Text, photos and video by VINCENT GO
THE Lenten season has inspired urban poor groups to hold various protests with the theme “Kalbaryo ng Maralita (Calvary of the Poor),” as urban poor communities braced themselves for more violent demolitions after Holy Week.
On Holy Tuesday they denounced President Benigno Aquino’s inaction on issues that include housing, demolitions, oil price increases and the looming power rate hike that will further burden poor families.
Urban Poor Associates (UPA), a nongovernment human rights organization, found that the highest number of eviction cases in nearly two decades was recorded in 2011.
Despite a covenant signed between Aquino and urban poor groups, some 15,000 families were evicted in different areas in Metro Manila alone.
Various organizations under the umbrella Task Force Anti-Eviction held their own version of Stations of the Cross, choosing the National Housing Authority office in Quezon City as their first station. The Task Force said NHA has been unable to implement a genuine social housing program.
“Through the Kalbaryo the actors deliver a message that Christ is judging us on what we have done to our urban poor brothers and sisters,” said UPA spiritual adviser Fr. Robert Reyes.
He said no changes have taken place in the 26 years that the urban poor have been holding their annual kalbaryo. “It is very true that in housing and similar problem areas, the voices of the poor come closest to being the voice of God. We must listen to them,” Reyes added.
“The daily survival stories of Filipinos in coping with high price of oil and electricity as well as their non-security in having decent shelter for their families brought about by demolitions can clearly be liken to the passions of Christ on his way to his death to the Calvary,” said Paulo Quiza, spokesperson for Bayan NCR.
Thousands of residents along EDSA in the North Triangle area, along BIR road in the East Triangle in Quezon City, and in the 10-hecatre lot within Silverio Compound that is home to some 25,000 families in Paranaque City are all bracing for another community barricade against demolitions after the Holy Week.
No less than a hundred families in the community of Sitio San Roque, North Triangle are to be affected by the road-widening project along EDSA. Task Force for the Control, Prevention and Removal of Illegal Structures and Squatting (TFCOPRISS), an agency directly under the Office of Mayor Herbert Bautista, has issued notices of demolition as early as March 28, giving the residents of North and East Triangle until Holy Week to voluntarily vacate their homes.
“What kind of Holy Week does Aquino desire for the urban poor?” asked Estrelieta Bagasabas, a community leader from North Triangle. “Noynoy doesn’t know the meaning of Holy Week, with his government in a demolition rampage of urban poor communities. The Aquino government is really instigating us to revolt.”
