Kalinga for Intramuros

We’ve devoted a number of columns to the development and transformation of the historic Walled City of Intramuros to become not just a major tourist attraction in Metro Manila, but also to be able to preserve a large part of the country’s history.

Given the current national government’s financial constraints and spending priorities, the Intramuros Administration should exert more effort to look for businessmen or firms who will be able to provide financial support by way of investments under a public-private partnership arrangement.

While waiting for this to firmly take root, there are other pressing problems that IA faces to see its masterplan take shape and materialize. These include zoning problems that include finding a solution to the problem of informal settlers within and around the Intramuros area.

In surveys conducted by the local government as well as the National Housing Authority, there are roughly 3,500 families of informal settlers residing in the four barangays found in Intramuros.

The problem of informal settlers has been with Intramuros for decades. Aling Otik and her family’s life as depicted by cartoonist Nonoy Marcelo has immortalized the pathetic condition of these informal settlers within the Walled City as early as the 1960s.

These people live in makeshift houses, scour the roads and alleys of Intramuros for work or income opportunities that will let them live on a day-to-day basis, while generally posing an unwelcome sight that’s anathema to the tourism image that is being nurtured.

In fact, in almost all surveys done in Intramuros, these informal settlers are often the reason for a lack of peace and order, and consequently contributing to the difficulty of attracting business and development in the area.

Sustainable community building

Enter Gawad Kalinga. Known for its nationwide endeavor to find permanent homes for informal settlers and more importantly empowering these migrant families to help them find a solution to their own poverty, GK was asked to help in the Intramuros project.

Recently, GK announced that it would break ground in an 11-hectare property in Trece Martires, Cavite that was donated by Cityland Development Corp.

Some 100 families currently occupying land across the National Commission on Culture and the Arts along General Luna, a main street of Intramuros, will be the first beneficiaries of Kalinga Intramuros. They are expected to move to their new homes by June 2013.

Incidentally, construction of a three-storey hostel and dormitory building on the vacated site will serve the needs of visitors and training participants of the NCCA’s many seminars and forum throughout the year.

The breadwinners or heads of the families that will move to Trece Martires, on the other hand, will be encouraged to stay during the week in dormitories that will also be built inside Intramuros, and go home to their families during the weekends.

A shuttle is being planned to bring the workers from the new homes to Intramuros at the start of the work week, then back to Trece Martires at the end of the work week.

In keeping with its sustainable community building belief, GK will make sure that the 11-hectare GK Village in Trece Martires will have the vestiges of a liveable village. Aside from a school and community center, there will be pocket parks, an amphitheater, farm lots, and a commercial area for the wet market, grocery and recreational facilities.

Heart of a community

More importantly, GK is committed to building the human dignity of each and every member of the informal families that will be relocated. This includes encouraging those that can work to find a source of living and be productive citizens.

For over a year now, GK has been working on the project, calling it Kalinga Intramuros. By interacting with the informal residents, their level of needs and wants have been identified and recognized, and a plan of action has been agreed on with community members who have signed in.

The usual social development tools are being employed to instill the right values for building a sustainable and holistic community. At the same time, GK is investing in social enterprise skills building to help residents in livelihood generation.

In a sense, this is tourism with a heart. Kalinga Intramuros has been actively soliciting pledges that will be invested in these informal settlers to wean them from a life of poverty.

Hope ball

In the most recent GK Hope Ball, the third since the Couples for Christ-based organization started this fund-raising event, a call for funds to relocate the more than 3,000 families out of Intramuros was raised.

With an estimated P12 million needed to help a hundred families, there’s still a lot of money needed from generous souls to fulfill the mission that Kalinga Intramuros set up to accomplish.

Hopefully, when all the work is completed, GK will have come closer to its goal of eradicating poverty among the country’s poorest of the poor with the help of individual Filipinos, organizations, and companies.

Those who wish to help may contact Gawad Kalinga at 940-9789 or 533-2217 or visit the GK Global headquarters at the ground floor of the Cheng Building on 212 Haig Street, Brgy. Daang-Bakal, Mandaluyong City; or send them an email at [email protected].

GK will need all the help that they can get.

Facebook and Twitter

We are actively using two social networking websites to reach out more often and even interact with and engage our readers, friends and colleagues in the various areas of interest that I tackle in my column. Please like us at www.facebook.com and follow us at www.twitter.com/ReyGamboa.

Should you wish to share any insights, write me at Link Edge, 25th Floor, 139 Corporate Center, Valero Street, Salcedo Village, 1227 Makati City. Or e-mail me at [email protected]. For a compilation of previous articles, visit www.BizlinksPhilippines.net.