KADAMAY FIGHTS SUBDIVISION PROJECT
MABALACAT CITY— Around 100 members of the urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) and its affiliate picketed the city hall here on Monday to oppose the ejectment of 187 families from an area that is planned for a residential subdivision, and the plan to relocate them to a danger zone.
The contested site behind Don Bosco Academy and Brentwood Village in Barangay Mawaque Maragul Purok 2 here is a public land that can be distributed to landless families, according to Danilo Tongol, president of Samahan ng Nagkakaisang Mamamayan ng Mawaque-Maragul-Purok 2, a Kadamay affiliate.
Information gathered by the group also showed the land was owned by the Government Service Insurance System.
Housing programs
Tongol said settlers moved in after Mt. Pinatubo erupted in June 1991, but did not apply for any housing programs under the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-Ibig).
Most of them are construction workers.
Hausland Corp., the developer that bought the property, said the land used to be owned by La Paz Development Corp.
The latter failed to push through with its project when informal settlers occupied the property many years ago.
Hausland said it was installing electricity and water connections in the relocation site offered by the city government.
Danger zone
But in the dialog held after the picket, Samahan members rejected the proposal of Mayor Marino Morales to transfer them to a property of the city government at the back of Xevera subdivision in Barangay Tabun.
Each settler was promised 50 square meters.
“That area is a danger zone,” Tongol said.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology has not certified Xevera to be safe from lahar flows from Mt. Pinatubo, after volcanic debris buried Barangay Tabun here in 1996.
Samahan also refused P5,000 as relocation aid from the city government.
Tongol criticized the Mabalacat government for acting on behalf of the housing developer instead of protecting the rights of homeless and landless families.