Makati sets example for relocation program

For decades, the biggest eyesore in Metro Manila’s commercial center which is Makati City was the squatters along the railroad tracks along Osmeña Highway. Nothing separated the squatters from the railroad tracks and it was not surprising that from time to time, we would get reports of young children who had been ran over by the passing trains. Now, thanks to Makati Mayor Jejomar C. Binay, 2,754 families out of 2,837 along the railroad track in Makati City have been relocated to Southville (formerly Kasibulan Village) in Cabuyao, Laguna. Makati is the first local government unit in the Southrail portion of the Philippine National Railway Rehabilitation Program to take this step.

What we like about the relocation was that it was peaceful, orderly and voluntary on the families affected by the program. Our first concern, of course, is the welfare of the relocated families. We were pleased to learn that they were provided with police protection and medical and technical assistance including the services of the city engineering personnel. Food assistance was provided for the relocated families for five days, the time they have been given to finish constructing their new residences in the resettlement site. The city provided senior citizens and children free use of the city school buses to transfer to their new homes and assured them that they can still avail themselves of the city’s subsidized healthcare program known as the Yellow Card Plus although they are no longer residents of Makati City. Education authorities in Makati and Cabuyao are also working hand in hand to make the transfer of the students as smooth as possible. We sincerely hope that the transferred families will all be in a better situation than when they were squatting beside the railroad tracks.

Our next and immediate concern is just what Mayor Binay will do with the area vacated by the squatters. It is right on a main highway of Makati City. What are the things that can be developed there that would enhance Makati City’s reputation as the main center of business establishments of Metro Manila? One option is to turn it into a forest. Unlike Manila that has Arroceros Park, Makati has no forest area that has been preserved. This is a top possibility but it will cost a lot of money. Two things can be done. Move grown-up trees or plant young trees along the area. We are sure that Mayor Binay must have a plan and that will give a new aspect to the most progressive city in Metro Manila. We hope that it will be Makati’s version of Manila’s Arroceros Park. Makati could certainly use more trees and the vacated land along the railroad tracks is an ideal place to have a city forest.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge defined nature as the term in which we comprehend all things that are representable in the form of time and space, and subjected to the relations of cause and effect. What Mayor Binay should do is to landscape the vacated area along the railroad tracks in Osmeña highway that would give Makati residents the feeling of what Makati was like before commercial buildings became its chief attraction.