Strong hands

By what legal grounds have the National Housing Authority (NHA) acceded to accommodate the illegal acts committed by those who transgressed vacant units in government housing projects and occupied them as their own? Instead of enforcing the eviction that the agency issued more than three weeks ago, these NHA officials extended the illegal occupancy by alleged urban poor families who entrenched themselves in the vacant units of government housing projects in Pandi, Bulacan.

This modus vivendi was struck during a “dialogue” these NHA officials conducted with the leaders of the Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay). Behind closed doors, the agreement was reached on the day the NHA deadline was supposed to lapse.     

Emerging after the meeting, the NHA announced they will no longer implement the eviction order even with the lapse of deadline within which the Kadamay members to voluntarily leave the premises they occupied.

It took the NHA more than a week to issue the eviction notices after Kadamay members have taken over and illegally occupied thousands of vacant housing units in seven government housing sites in Pandi and several other towns in Bulacan since last March 8. The NHA even paid precious, scarce government funds to publish in several newspapers, including The STAR, the eviction notice.

From press reports, the NHA deferred eviction to May supposedly in consideration that the children of these Kadamay families have to finish schooling nearby the vacant housing sites they took over.

The limp-wristed solution of the government, however, on this illegal take-over of NHA housing sites obviously backfired. It did not only send the wrong message but emboldened some more of Kadamay members to go on their merry ways to occupy any vacant government housing sites later in Rizal province. But residents already aware about Kadamay antics put up barricades and protected their neighborhood from these transpassers. 

Yesterday, Kadamay members consisting of 41 adults and 17 minors took over a vacant private land in Tandang Sora in Quezon City. Overnight, they built their shanties in the vacant lot that is subject of on-going litigation in court. The 41 adults were arrested and all taken to Camp Karingal for inquest proceeding for trespassing, grave coercion and malicious mischief. The 17 minors were placed under the case of the QC Hall social welfare department.

To the credit of QC Police Director Guillermo Eleazar, there was no violence that marred the eviction of the illegal settlers. They were even fed and accommodated temporarily at Camp Karingal where they were all taken after their eviction. But the law is the law, the QCPD enforced the rule of law.

What made these Kadamay members so brazen to take over vacant units in these government housing sites and private lots? Is it because known left-leaning party-list representatives from Bayan Muna, Kabataan, Gabriela etc. supported their illegal occupation? The answer is obvious.

It became very much clearer when their self-confessed leaders started spouting words of communist leaders for urban land reform and social justice for the poor. And they obviously timed it as the government was preparing then to restart peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF).

In subsequent days last week, the communist supporters and sympathizers tried to make a show of force. At least, that is what they were supposed to be telling us. They conducted lightning rallies with protesters wearing masks and carried red streamers of the CPP-NPA and stopped for a while traffic in EDSA. Then, they later trooped to Mendiola, the street across Malacanang Palace.

President Duterte has time and again declared he is not a communist but a socialist. But to extend the hands of his administration to the leftist groups, the President appointed five known communist-leaning leaders to his Cabinet. 

And one of them is Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco who is concurrently the head of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC). Evasco has assumed this extra hat since December when Vice President Leni Robredo resigned from the Cabinet of President Rodrigo Duterte. The NHA is among the state housing agencies under the umbrella of the HUDCC.

It is quite understandable for Evasco to have a bleeding heart for the poor. He is after all a former priest who supported communist rebels in Bohol. Then fiscal Duterte filed a rebellion case against Evasco following his capture by the military during the Marcos regime.

In fact, Evasco is the favorite poster model of President Duterte among the reformed communist members who joined the establishment. When he was already a Mayor of Davao City, Evasco went to see him at City Hall looking for a job. He assigned him as City Hall administrator and from then on, they worked together. And yesterday, it finally became clear when President Duterte himself told Army men to leave the occupied housing units to Kadamay members.

The President though sternly reminded Kadamay not to create trouble at their illegally acquired housing units or else they will be evicted.

Perhaps, it’s about time for President Duterte to appoint somebody in charge of HUDCC, or abolish it.

The last time I heard, Sen. JV Ejercito is set to conduct a public hearing on the Kadamay case in relation to renewed proposals in Congress to create a Department of Housing to place all these state housing agencies under one roof.

According to Ejercito who chairs the Senate committee on housing, he has coordinated already with his House counterpart to set the public hearing on the proposed bills. Ejercito tentatively set the joint hearing on Kadamay housing issues after the Holy Week.

At the outset, the Senator acknowledged the problem of housing backlog never seemed to have shrunk through these years despite production of low-cost housing by both government and private sectors. Adding to the problem, he noted, many of these resettlement sites are constructed too far from schools, employment opportunities etc. for the intended beneficiaries.

This is not to mention the fact that many of these housing units are too small to accommodate the average size of a Filipino family with five children.

This is why beneficiaries of low-cost government housing sites who include policemen, military men and public school teachers reportedly could not move in unless the units are at least expanded or the floor area extended.   

The housing sector needs a strong hand and clear vision to fully address all these shelter-related problems.