Informal settlers forced to leave Tondo compound

Tension erupted on Monday in the Dypac Compound on Juan Luna Street in Tondo, Manila, as residents squared off with a demolition team sent to tear down illegal and condemned structures in the area.

Superintendent Jemar Modequillo, chief of the Manila Police District’s Station 2, said that they deployed 240 policemen to the compound after residents put up a barricade to stop the demolition.

“Some people threw things at [the police] but no one was hurt during the incident,” he added.

According to him, the demolition, which targeted around 100 families, should have started at 9 a.m. However, it was pushed back to 11 a.m. due to the resistance they encountered from residents.

“We reasoned with them that they should have moved since they were informed that their homes would be demolished soon. We reminded them that we were only there to ensure that the demolition is carried out smoothly. We told them that the owner has ordered the demolition and there was no way around it,” Modequillo explained.

He said that the residents had asked the Department of Public Works and Highways to allow them to remain in the compound.

The appeal, however, was denied, leading to the setting of a date for the demolition.

Manila city building officer Melvin Balagot said the three-hectare property was supposed to be used as a parking lot although it had become home to scores of informal settlers.

He accused the barangay (village) chair of allowing people to put up “illegal structures made of substandard materials unfit for people” in the area without Dy Pac’s consent.

Balagot also claimed that most of the families living in the area were related to the barangay official.

Balagot said the compound used to be a sawmill and lumberyard.

Shane de Guzman, 28, a resident, said that they had been living in the area for 10 years, even paying a monthly rent of P1,000 to a fellow resident.

“Now we have nowhere else to go. Not even a place to sleep,” she told the Inquirer.