Duterte, Kadamay clash over housing for poor

Members of the urban poor group Kadamay have started building communities in idle government housing sites that they occupied in Bulacan province. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

CITY OF MALOLOS — President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday warned urban poor groups like Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) against using poverty to force changes in government.

“Don’t use poverty to create chaos,” Mr. Duterte said during a meeting with the families of soldiers and policemen killed in the campaign to retake Marawi City from the Maute group.

Addressing Kadamay, he said in Filipino: “Don’t repeat what you did in Bulacan. I am warning you … If you again force your way into government houses, my order is for government forces to drive you away. Either they will strike you with clubs, or if you resist, I will have them shoot you down.”

On March 8, Kadamay led the takeover of houses in five resettlement and social housing sites in Pandi town in Bulacan province.

Some of the houses were intended for soldiers, policemen, firemen and jail personnel.

But Mr. Duterte encouraged the beneficiaries to drop their claims so as not to force a violent confrontation with Kadamay. Instead, he promised them he would build “better housing units” for their families.

In his State of the Nation Address on Monday, Mr. Duterte said, “The Left went overboard. You build houses, they steal these.”

“Here and now, I will tell you, including Congress: You do anarchy, I will order the soldiers and policemen to shoot. Even if I have to bury thousands of Filipinos …,” he said.

“Let us understand this beginning today: Either we have laws in this country or we don’t. We enforce the laws against the miners and the rich, but I will also enforce laws against anarchy, disturbance and those who will create trouble.”

But Kadamay was unfazed.

“Our occupy campaign will continue. We will target other idle government [housing sites]. From the data we uncovered, more than 100,000 houses remain unused … That is why the poor will continue fighting for their rights,” said Gloria Arellano, Kadamay national chair.

She also said the tax reform measure pushed by the Duterte administration and its “build, build, build” infrastructure plan would only hurt the poor.

Since March, 5,918 Kadamay families have taken over 5,278 houses in the Padre Pio settlement in Barangay Cacarong Bata, Pandi Residences 3 and Pandi Village 2 in Barangay Mapulang Lupa, Villa Elise in Barangay Masuso, Pandi Heights 1 in Barangay Cacarong Bata and Villa Louise in Barangay Siling Bata, all in Pandi, as well as a housing project in Barangay Muzon in the City of San Jose del Monte, also in Bulacan.

That number had grown to 8,494 families when Kadamay members took in more people, said Elsie Trinidad, spokesperson of the National Housing Authority (NHA), which oversees these housing projects.

She said the NHA was waiting for the inventory reports of the housing boards of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police, to know whether their personnel were abandoning their claims over the houses taken over by Kadamay. —Carmela Reyes-Estrope