Rail dwellers to resist demolition

Hundreds of informal settlers living along railroad tracks in Caloocan City have vowed to resist the impending demolition of their shanties by the local government as part of the development of the ambitious Manila-Clark Rapid Railways project.

This developed after city officials and Secretary Michael Defensor of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) last Monday met and discussed the immediate relocation of some legitimate 433 families to be displaced.

Defensor allayed affected residents’ fears that they would be left to fend for themselves by the government. The demolition is set to begin next month, sources said.

"The government will definitely provide them a relocation site, complete with basic facilities, by the National Housing Authority (NHA) most probably at the Towerville in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan," Defensor said in a statement issued by the city public information office.

Affected families have been squatting along the Philippine National Railways (PNR) railroad tracks in Barangay 1, 2 and 80 and the Caloocan-Malabon boundary for years.

In 1998, the NHA conducted a survey and identified 652 squatting families. Some 137 families have been relocated to Harmony Hills in Bulacan while 56 families opted to go back to their home provinces through the Balik Probinsiya Program of the city government.

Caloocan City Mayor Rey Malonzo assured Defensor that the city government would assist concerned families in their transfer to a relocation site. The mayor also ordered the local Department of Education to facilitate the transfer of children to the nearest schools at the site.

But affected residents have met and discussed what they would do during the demolition.

"We have been living here for many years. We will fight anyone who will take us away from this place," a resident mother of five, said. – Jerry Botial