EDITORIAL - Pity the poor Dakit residents

Residents of sitio Dakit in Guadalupe should resist attempts by the city government to relocate them even if they are being told that it is for their own safety and security that they should.

While it is true that they are now under threat from flashfloods, as what they have experienced just a few weeks ago, the situation is not a simple matter of their safety and security. It is about fairness and justice as well.

Look, the residents of sitio Dakit never bothered anyone. They were living peacefully and well. In fact, the city government probably did not even know they existed until that flood struck and threatened their lives.

The Dakit residents only became a concern when the flood struck, through no fault of their own. The flood resulted from a huge land development taking place in the hills above them. Before the development, no floods ever bothered the Dakit residents.

Now, we are not against development. There is no stopping progress. And progress will eventually benefit everyone. But progress and development must go hand in hand in prudence and civic responsibility.

Unfortunately, progress and development often proceed in accordance with the parameters set by government or government regulatory bodies. Beyond what is delineated in the parameters, the agents of change cannot be held to account.

In the case of Dakit, it is strange that the city government is now rushing to uproot the poor residents when it is through its own fault that the right parameters were not set to at least consider their plight in face of impending development.

Again, we suspect the city government did not even know the residents ever existed. Otherwise their existence would have been factored into whatever permits were required before development set in.

In fact it could even be worse. What if the city government knew about the Dakit residents but decided to let the development proceed anyway without so much as demanding any mitigating measures to be put in place? If any uprooting takes place, it must be with damages.