President Aquino finds ‘room at the inn’ for estero-dwelling urban poor

MANILA, Philippines—‘Tis a season to rejoice for urban poor families living precariously near estuaries and waterways in Metro Manila.

President Benigno Aquino III is expected to lead the groundbreaking of medium-rise buildings along estuaries and waterways in the cities of Pasay, Quezon and Manila for the urban poor next week, Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo confirmed on Friday.

“For more than two decades of reenacting Joseph and Mary’s search for shelter, this is the first time that we can say ‘There is a place for us in the city,’” Felomina Cinco, president of Nagkakaisang Mamamayan ng Lerda, said in a statement.

“Our community is just waiting for the housing project’s groundbreaking. We are hopeful this would be our Christmas present,” said Cinco, a resident of Estero De San Miguel near Malacañang.

The urban poor have been looking forward to the groundbreaking of “on-site” medium-rise buildings or “in-city” relocation sites since Mr. Aquino approved a minimum P38-billion budget for the five-year project.

The government is targeting 106,000 families of informal settlers in “danger zones,” or those living near estuaries, waterways, under bridges, by the rivers, and on stilts over the bay, and under immediate danger of being swept away or drowning during heavy rain. They constitute a fifth of the estimated 500,000 informal settlers in the metropolis.

Estero residents and the Urban Poor Associates (UPA) broached the idea of an “on-site” housing, akin to the slum upgrading of the Bangkok Bang Bua Canal in Thailand that benefited 3,400 families, during a meeting with Mr. Aquino in Malacañang in 2010.

On Thursday, some 3,000 urban poor from around the metropolis reenacted Mary and Joseph’s “panunuluyan” (search for lodging) in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago from Plaza de Moriones to Sto. Niño de Tondo Parish Church in Tondo, Manila, UPA said.

They held banners expressing their Christmas wish: a decent place to say, and featuring housing designs by architect Jun Palafox. They later attended a Mass celebrated by Bishop Broderick Pabillo, UPA information officer Princess Asuncion said.

They also handed the 2011 Urban Poor Person of the Year to Robredo for “breathing life” to the President’s Covenant with the Urban Poor, which called for propoor relocation guidelines, she said.

While heartened by the upcoming groundbreaking, the urban poor also appealed to Mr. Aquino for more dialogues as they assailed the violent evictions of informal settlers in the first one and a half years of his administration.

They pointed out that the administration had not issued any land proclamation, unlike then President Arroyo who issued 94 proclamations benefiting 195,475 poor families.

“We suggest you meet with us from time to time to explain the problems that arise and to give encouragement. No group likes to walk in the dark,” they said in a statement addressed to Mr. Aquino.

They said the administration’s evictions were “not better than that of former presidents.”