Hoodwinking government

In our column of last May 4th, we lauded Vice President Noli "Kabayan" de Castro for ordering the padlocking of 10 houses in the Northville resettlement site in Bulacan. These houses had been illegally sold by original awardees to unqualified occupants. The resettlement program is part of the controversial Northrail project.

Whatever opinion you might hold about that project, the government has begun clearing operations and has, over the last several months, been relocating "informal settlers," a.k.a. squatters, at the affected route of the proposed railroad upgrading.

By the way, alert motorists have also been noticing that, at least at the Makati sections of the South expressway, informal settlers have also been relocated to other sites. The government seems intent on restoring reasonably good railroad service for commuters in the northern and southern bedroom communities around Metro Manila.

This is, of course, long overdue. In the past, we have in this space taken to task the Philippine National Railways and the local governments concerned for allowing the mushrooming of squatters along the railroad tracks. The result was not only grave danger to the lives and limbs of squatters and their children, but also lots of foul-smelling garbage on roofs of railroad cars.

The ingenious solution to the garbage problem was to simply remodel those cars by giving them pointed roofs, so the garbage would simply roll off the top. What the PNR eventually did with the garbage that piled up on the tracks has never been disclosed.

Nor did the commuters particularly care. Out of sheer desperation, those that had no choice simply provisioned themselves with several handkerchiefs or boxes of tissue paper to ward off the offending effluvium. Those that did care, looked for alternative means to get to their places of work. The train "service," such as it was, limped along, predictably apathetic about its decaying condition and moribund finances.

The other atrocity wrought upon the railroads by the squatters was their unashamed construction of dwellings right up to the railroad tracks. Riders were within eyeball, if not spitting (literally!), distance of residents going about their daily tasks of washing clothes and cooking meals. Again, long-suffering commuters without any other viable option took this major inconvenience and credible threat to one’s safety and sanity as one more hazard of daily living in the City of Man. Those that could, looked for other less life-threatening means of transport.

I regard the latest phase of relocations as a Herculean effort of government to confront this problem. Sooner rather than later, I dare to hope, we will see this reputedly weak government give further evidence of its rediscovered political will by taking those C-5 squatters on. There, government relocation teams have encountered stiff resistance.

In the past, they have been met by uniformed men with high-powered rifles implementing well-executed perimeter defenses, i.e. burning tires on C-5 to cause monstrous traffic jams, as well as the ultimate in citadel stands by way of waves of defenders brandishing weapons escalating in ferocity, from slingshot squads, rock-hurling teams to, eventually, the aforesaid armed men with their backs to the proverbial wall and grenade-launchers at the ready.

Who are these armed and uniformed men? Elementary, my dear Watson. They happen to be enlisted men and non-coms from across the street whereat reside, or overstay, hundreds of their comrades who happen to wear stripes (which Da Vinci Code’s Sir Leigh Teabing describes as an old phallic symbol of male virility) and stars. Yup, the officers live in subsidized housing, some of which is deemed the birthright (and hence the permanent personal properties) of the occupants, while the front-liners and cannon fodder for insurgents and separatists make do in their shanties and hovels.

But I digress, as I often do when I get into the above subjects. Let me just leave you, temporarily! – we fully intend to get back to this subject, particularly that of military housing – with the fervent hope that the government will continue to aggressively pursue a policy of finally resolving the problem of urban homelessness. Other countries have, but don’t get me started on that one!

Anyway, what I really wanted to say in this column is that it turns out that substantially more than 10 houses have been illegally sold, abandoned or remained unoccupied by "relocatees" in the Northrail project. Documents we have obtained show that as many as 670, yes, 670 vacant lots or constructed housing units have apparently been "negotiated" by the relocatees at several Northville relocation sites.

Since these lots and properties are not freely transferable, but must be availed of by qualified beneficiaries, proceedings are now in progress to evict illegal occupants and cancel awards of lots. Most of the beneficiaries, it is important to note, were also given Housing Materials Loans on concessionary terms, and most of the funds have already been released. The borrowers, naturally, cannot be expected to pay off these loans, assuming they can even be found.

The government, therefore, has been dealt a triple whammy: it’s out those awarded lots and housing units now occupied illegally; it’s out the funds given by way of concessionary loans given to beneficiaries; and it has to figure out now where those fleeing beneficiaries will set up squatter colonies all over again. The familiar result, it would appear, is that despite enormous expense from the public treasury, no appreciable dent may have been made in the "informal settlers" problem.

Or maybe not. The government, as VP Noli’s action makes clear, may no longer be willing to play the role of perennial dupe. I know there are many radical do-gooders who will try to shift the blame to government and insist that the fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, or in us underlings, but in the government which has not "consulted" with the beneficiaries or bothered to meet their usual concerns about livelihood opportunities in the relocation sites. In this case, however, the record seems clear that there were such consultations and the relocation sites themselves are geographically proximate to numerous livelihood opportunities.

This time, I do not think government can be blamed. The defalcating awardees, after all, actually received their houses and/or lots and most loans for housing materials were fully released. If they show up again in squatter colonies, they should not be entitled to further government support. If government allows itself to be duped again, especially by those squatting syndicates that are probably behind this anomaly, it gives more proof of its weakness and gullibility.

When the government pontificates about the "rule of law," does it mean what it says, or not?