800 shanties demolished

At least 800 shanties in a squatter’s colony along Road-10 in Navotas were demolished yesterday to pave the way for a road widening project of the Department of Public Works and Highway’s (DPWH).

Some 4,000 individuals were affected by the demolition which started Thursday.

Using heavy equipment and backed by a 200-man demolition team from the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), the DPWH started their operation at around 2:45 p.m. on Thursday and was initially met with resistance by the residents.

Chief Inspector Jack Ramos, commander of the Northern Police District (NPD) mobile force tasked to help maintain peace and order on the demolition site, said a member of the demolition team, Gerry Forebadonia, 22, was shot in the left shoulder. He is now recuperating in a hospital.

Ramos said the residents tried to put up a fight but was later pacified by authorities. The immediate arrival of the NPD cops, who augmented the DPWH security force, prevented the escalation of violence.

The second phase of the demolition started at around 9 a.m. yesterday and ended at around noon. Some residents though had volunteered to dismantle their own houses.

Erlinda Aranchado, of the Urban Poor Ministry of the diocese of Caloocan, said that they opposed the destruction of the residents’ houses as the relocation site provided by the DPWH is only good for around 100 families.

The church, she disclosed, offered an alternative relocation site in Barangay Tanza, Navotas, but it could only accommodate 100 more families.

Engineer Lito Serrano, of the Navotas municipal government, said that those who could not be accommodated in the government’s relocation site would be given P15,000 by the DPWH and the local government.

"Those who are qualified are assured of financial assistance," Serrano told The STAR.

Aranchado, however, said that the DPWH has listed only a total of 561 families that will qualify for financial assistance. More than 200 families have nowhere to go, she said.

"For now, they would just have to stay here on the roadside," Aranchado said.

DPWH trucks started to transport residents of the former squatter’s colony to the relocation site in Barangay Bitongol, San Jose del Monte, Bulacan yesterday.

According to Serrano, the DPWH was supposed to implement its road-widening project along Road-10 in 1998, but residents have often asked for the extension of their stay in the site.