Relocation of rail dwellers faces new stumbling block

The Malabon City government faces another headache after a Navotas councilor vowed to block the planned resettlement of 2,500 Malabon squatter families – rail dwellers directly affected by the Manila-Clark Rapid Railways project of the national government – in April this year in Barangay Tanza, Navotas.

This was revealed in an interview with lone Navotas opposition Councilor Eduardo Santiago. The councilor said he would bring the matter anew to the attention of the municipal council of Navotas.

He vowed to explore all legal means to prevent the transfer of Malabon City’s informal setters to his town, citing social costs as basis for his argument.

Santiago said he had talked with several councilors in the municipal council regarding the matter.

"It’s is a different story if we are talking of informal setters being relocated because they also come with problems. We cannot allow Navotas to be a repository of Malabon’s headaches," Santiago said.

He said the Navotas municipal council is simply waiting for a Malabon resolution attesting to the transfer of its squatter-residents in Navotas.

"After we receive the documents, definitely we will issue a resolution that would prohibit them from doing that," Santiago stressed.

Santiago agreed with observers that the 12-hectare fishpond in Barangay Tanza, bought by the Malabon City government from a fishing company for the amount of roughly P90 million, is "not in habitable condition." The shanty homes of rail dwellers from Acacia, Tugatog, Potrero and Tinajeros in Malabon City are set to be demolished in April this year. Some 2,500 families are set to be relocated to the disputed Tanza property in Navotas.

Leaders of urban poor groups in the affected project area had accused the Malabon City government of misleading its residents for saying that the area will be ready for relocation this April following an ocular inspection of the resettlement site last week.