MANILA, Philippines - A partylist group advocating the rights of indigents is set to file on Wednesday criminal charges against Quezon City mayor Herbert Bautista for accusing the organization of extorting money from informal settlers along Agham Road.
Anakpawis partylist and urban poor leaders in North Triangle will file a libel case against Bautista for allegedly saying that the group has been asking P1,000 per household inside the the 29-hectare property of the National Housing Authority.
The NHA has sold property to a private firm, Ayala, which would develop the area into a business district.
Anakpawis will file the case before the Office of the Ombudsman.
Earlier, Bautista accused that leaders of the group has been funding some of informal settlers to resist the impending demolition of houses in the area.
He also said most of the houses in the place are being rented to informal settlers by professional squatters as many of the families have been relocated to a resettlement site in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan.
The mayor made the statement after policemen dispersed some of the informal settlers who barricaded the corner of Agham Road and Quezon Avenue last Monday, congesting flow of traffic in the area.
For their part, leaders of the informal settlers said they thought that their houses would be demolish as the notice to vacate the place given to them by the city government has already expired.