400 families in demolished Navotas squatter colony have nowhere to go

Some 400 families of illegal settlers whose shanties were demolished Friday to pave the way for the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) road widening project in Navotas sought the government’s help yesterday in finding a relocation site.

Tessie de la Cruz, 40, an urban poor leader in Barangay North Bay Boulevard North, Navotas, said that after the demolition crew dismantled some 800 shanties in their community, they didn’t receive any help for relocation even from the Navotas municipal government.

"We have nowhere to go. Many of us, especially young children, already fell ill due to inclement weather," Luiedia Placencia, 41, a midwife, told The STAR. The affected residents, who put up makeshift tents on the roadside, complained that even their barangay officials have abandoned them.

"None of our local officials showed concern for our sorry condition," Placencia said.

Navotas municipal engineer Lito Serrano earlier said the affected residents were offered a relocation site in Barangay Bitongol in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, but those who don’t want to avail of the government relocation would be given P15,000 as a form of financial assistance.

"Qualified families would surely be given assistance," Serrano said.

Almost half of the affected residents already moved to the DPWH relocation project and to a church-sponsored relocation site in Barangay Tanza, Navotas.

Those who refused to leave the site complained that the relocation offered by the DPWH is just an open lot without houses and that they have yet to receive the cash the local government had promised them.

"Apart from shelter, we also need food and medicine. But where shall we get them?" De la Cruz asked.

She said the DPWH failed to provide them with a livable relocation site and the demolation was done on a weekend when government offices are closed.

According to Serrano the DPWH road-widening project on Road-10 has long been overdue but it only materialized last Friday as the government had often opted to delay the project to accommodate the appeals of residents to give them more time to vacate the site.