QC gives in to Payatas victims’ kin

The Quezon City government pledged to speed up the release of the remains of victims of the July 10 Payatas tragedy still in the custody of a forensic team charged with the grim task of identifying the remains.

Mayor Ismael Mathay also told survivors and kin of those who perished in the worst urban disaster to hit the country in recent years, that he will shorten the process for the release of P15,000-financial assistance he had earlier allocated for them.

According to him, he plans to resume recovery operations at the collapsed 15-hectare dump in two weeks. He said he is only finishing negotiations with two contractors to continue the operations. About 73 people remain missing in the tragedy, which killed at least 234 people and injured scores of others.

Mathay made these commitments at an emotionally-charged meeting Thursday at City Hall with the July 10 Payatas Victims Organization (J10PVO) and their lawyers from the Public Interest Law Center (PILC). The group, an affiliate of the militant urban poor network Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay), has filed a P1-billion damage suit against the Quezon City government, the Metro Manila Development Authority, among other entities, because of the garbage slide.

PILC associate lawyer Rachel Pastores said she had expected Mathay to address the "whole issue" of settling the suit out of court, only to learn during the dialogue that the local chief executive was only ready to discuss the immediate demands raised by the group.

She said it was Mathay himself who arranged for the dialogue. "At the most, we were able to establish direct communication with agencies and officials directly tasked with providing assistance to the victims," she told The STAR after the two-hour-meeting.

She said the two parties are scheduled to talk again on Nov. 10. Delia Badion, who heads the J10PVO, told Mathay during the dialogue that the mayor’s subordinates had been forcing them to drop the suit in exchange for the release of their loved ones’ remains. She also said they were being asked to sign papers waiving their rights to pursue the recovery of their loved ones’ remains after receiving financial assistance from City Hall. – Romel Bagares