RP label as housing rights violator ‘unfair, ridiculous,’ says Noli

Vice President Noli De Castro called yesterday the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions’ (COHRE) inclusion of the Philippines to the 2006 top three housing rights violators in the world "unfair" and "ridiculous."

De Castro, concurrent chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), said  the non-government association’s naming the Philippines along with Nigeria and Greece as a housing rights violator is "unfair."

The NGO claimed the Philippine government "continues to evict hundreds of thousands of people in the name of ‘beautification’ and ‘development,’ with the urban poor being the worst affected."

He took issue with COHRE’s use of the word ‘eviction’ in the case of the families affected by the rail linkage projects.

"After citing the so-called evictions, they said in the very next sentence that the families were moved to relocation sites. That’s not eviction, that’s relocation – and there’s a world of difference in the case of the North Rail and South Rail families," De Castro said.

The Vice President added that the government did not  forcibly eject the relocatees from their homes since the affected families were moved from the railroad tracks to subdivisions where they were provided with home lots they could actually own.

"We gave them shelter security so the government can work on improving the railway system, which thousands of people depend on. The irony here is that if we had left those families in their cramped shanties and unsanitary slums along the railroad tracks, we probably would not be in this list of so-called housing rights violators," he added.

The government, he said, provided security of tenure to some 28,000 families, in locations that were chosen by the majority of the relocatees themselves.

"I’m not saying their situation now is perfect, but it’s definitely better than the one they left behind," he said.

The Vice President pointed out that the relocation was voluntary and that the affected families were adequately informed and consulted prior to relocation.

"We talked to the people through the local inter-agency committees (LIAC) prior to relocation, and we explained the incremental development process. We looked for in-city relocation sites as much as possible, or near-city in the case of Manila. And we did not intimidate the families to agree to the relocation," he stated.

De Castro also denied the accusation that the relocation sites did not have services such as potable water, electricity and sanitation facilities.

"Service providers have installed or are installing power and water facilities. We are fasttracking the process for all of the families to have individual connection to these facilities, which is being subsidized to the extent possible," he stated.

In line with the incremental development, the Vice President said that the residents are being given livelihood assistance in the form of trainings, credit and loan assistance and even job referrals.

Meantime, De Castro ordered yesterday government shelter agencies Pag-IBIG Fund, Social Housing Finance Corp. and National Housing Authority (NHA) to impose a six-month moratorium on the payment of housing loans of members living in areas affected by recent  super typhoon "Reming."

The NHA is preparing an inventory of existing resettlement sites in affected provinces, which may be expanded and made available to families who lost their homes. The NHA will offer serviced lots and housing material loans.