Police showered with rocks, bottles, feces in QC shanty demolition

Rocks, bottles and human excretion rained down on the demolition team sent to clear an informal settler community in Barangay South Triangle in Quezon City on Tuesday.

This was according to the Kamuning police station commander, Supt. Limuel Obon, who led the 400-strong police force sent to assist the Quezon City government’s task force for the control, prevention and removal of illegal structures and squatting (Copriss) in a demolition at the corner of Mother Ignacia Road and Scout Bayoran Street.

The team was implementing a clearing operation in Lot 16, Block S-151/114, 116, and 118, which has been in the works for the past two years. But the demolition team was still met with some resistance from residents throwing random projectiles on Tuesday, Obon said.

“A policeman and a member of the demolition team suffered grazes. We were pelted with bottles, rocks, and showered with collected feces and pee. I had to order my men to take showers afterward,” Obon said in Filipino.

The demolition, which started at 7:30 a.m., encountered resistance in the morning, but tensions already abated by noontime, Obon said. Obon said that by the afternoon, some residents have voluntarily vacated the shanties and cleared the debris.

The Quezon City public affairs and information services office (Paiso) said the city government had been consulting the informal settlers about vacating the property, owned by private firm Service Leasing.

The structures in the area had been declared illegal by the city building office, and were confirmed by the Bureau of Fire Protection to be fire hazards, said Paiso officer in charge Regina Samson.

Samson added the city government had also identified the area as a possible “tourism district” under a tourism development plan.

Samson said 300 families originally resided in the area, but around 200 had already been relocated and given financial assistance by the Quezon City government. Only 87 families remained in the area as of Tuesday’s demolition.

Samson said the local housing board had given a certificate of compliance to the demolition, to prove that it had complied with all legal processes.

Based on the request for police assistance by Task Force Copriss, the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 214 has also issued a writ of execution for the demolition.

A pre-demolition conference with stakeholders, conducted by the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor, had also been held. Members of the commission were also present to oversee the demolition on Tuesday. SM