[asia-apec 116] Re: MINUYAN RELOCATEES/APEC VICTIMS

[RVerzola]

PRESS RELEASE
September 18, 1996

MINUYAN RELOCATEES:  "GOVERNMENT REMOVED US FROM A DANGER AREA BUT
BROUGHT US TO MINUYAN, A VIRTUAL DEATH ZONE, ALL BECAUSE OF APEC."

     Urban poor people from the temporary relocation site in Bo.
Minuyan, Sapang Palay staged today protest actions at the National
Housing Authority in Quezon City and later at the HUDCC office along
Makati Avenue, Makati City.

     Nestor Gonzales, president of the Bonifacio Drive Homeowners
Association, bitterly recalled that their story has been a long one of
pain and suffering, of promises made and not fulfilled ever since
government decided to remove "eyesore" communitites before the APEC
meeting in November.  Last June 26 to 27 government demolished their
shanties at the foot of Del Pan bridge.  A woman suffered miscarriage,
five women gave premature births of which two babies died.  The local
government said they would not relocate the evicted people because
they are living on a danger area and according to their reading of the
law which a Manila judge upheld, people living on such places should
not be given relocation lots.

     This caused an uproar from peoples organizations, non-government
organizations and church people who pointed out that the Philippine
government had very recently signed the Istanbul Declaration on June
14 at the end of the Second UN Conference on Human Settlements. The
document committed governments to protect its people from forced
evictions and to provide them with adequate housing.  HUDCC Chiarman
Dionisio de la Serna who held a press conference on June 28 on the
Philippine government's participation in the Istanbul conference
agreed to meet with the evicted people who were demonstrating outside
the HUDCC office in Makati.  He promised the people would be relocated
in two weeks time to Barrio Minuyan, Sapang Palay where an abandoned
warehouse would be converted to a temporary relocation site.

     The two weeks stretched to almost two months.  Finally on August
20 the people were transferred to Minuyan.  Manila City Hall
demolition crews burned the people's housing materials, saying the
people would not need them since all families will be given cubicles.

     Of the 250 families relocated in Minuyan only 86 families
received cubicles, the families without cubicles built shelters in the
corridors or makeshift shanties near the abandoned bodega.  Between 50
to 60 people share one toilet.  A container of brownish water costs
two pesos.  Drainage is inadequate and water from the lavatories form
dirty pools.  Garbage is not collected but is either buried in pits or
burned.  The unsanitary conditions have brought about so much sickness
among the people such as cholera, dengue, diarrhea, cough and fever.
Aling Vivian Orque said, "each family here has a sick person, usually
a young child."  Holy Spirit Sister Arnold Maria says the dirty water
has caused diarrhea among the children.

     The children also have stopped their schooling because local
government schools raised so many impossible requirements before they
would accept the schoolers.  For example, the parents are required to
produce copies of demolition notices, report cards, birth
certificates, entry permits to temporary relocation sites, good
character certificates, etc.

     George Lapuri says, "My work at the piers brings me some P150 per
day.  If I go home everyday I have to set aside P36 for fare.  I take
the bus in Avenida at 8:00 in the evening and reach Sapang Palay
nearly at midnight.  But by 3:00 in the morning I have to leave for
Manila, otherwise I would be caught in the traffic."

     Aling Alvie Salvador laments, "Government officials told us they
had to remove us from our old place because it was a danger zone, but
Minuyan is worse, it is virtually a death zone."  Robin Orque, a third
grader, says he wants to help his parents and neighbors fight against
government's inhuman and callous treatment, "We children wrote to
President Bill Clinton to ask him to tell President Ramos that he need
not violate our housing rights because of his visit to the Philippines
for the APEC meeting.  The White House said it has received our
letter."

     The Minuyan relocatees, their children, the NGOs and poor people
in other areas under demolition threat declared they will hold more
mass actions to make the government feel their unhappiness and anger
at its shabby and callous treatment of poor people's rights.  Mang
Aniceto Basada says, "I have nothing against APEC.  Perhaps it will do
good for the country and others.  I really do not know what it is all
about.  But it has meant for me and my family endless pain and
suffering ever since June 26 when government demolished our houses."

                              URBAN POOR ASSOCIATES
                              contact:  Ted Anana, Denis Murphy
                              or Lanie Francia
                              Tele/fax:  920-2434