The Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap held a rally yesterday in front of the National Housing Authority in Quezon City to protest the release of an eviction notice against occupants of idle housing units in Pandi, Bulacan.
Kadamay rejected the eviction notice, labeling it as another crime committed against the urban poor insisting on their right to housing.
“The only thing the NHA seems to good at is forcefully and even violently evicting the urban poor wherever they reside. Thousands of our countrymen have been victimized by evictions and they have suffered even more in relocation sites, where they lack utilities and pay high amortization costs under the so-called socialized housing system. The occupation of Pandi housing units is not just about acquiring shelter but asserting the urban poor’s argument that housing should be treated as a social service and basic right,” said Kadamay chairperson Gloria “Ka Bea” Arellano.
Kadamay noted that adequate housing is universally recognized and enshrined in the 1948 United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and the 1966 International Convention of Social Cultural and Economic Rights.
Meanwhile, the 6,000 Kadamay members who occupied the idle housing units in Pandi said they are awaiting the eviction notice that was supposed to be served yesterday by the NHA but vowed that they will never leave the relocation site.
“Hindi kami natatakot at hinding-hindi kami aalis,” they said.(Freddie C. Velez and Chito A. Chavez)
