Adapted from a talk given at a PSL branch meeting in Los Angeles.
“Walang aalis, walang aalis, walang aalis!” (nobody’s leaving, nobody’s leaving, nobody’s leaving!), the residents of Sitio San Roque chanted in unison, piercing the too familiar sound of midday traffic along Efipanio De los Santos Avenue in the North Triangle area of Quezon City, Philippines.
Thousands of men, women and children of the embattled community of the informal settlement of San Roque shut down the busiest highway in the Philippines. The action to defend the community from demoltion, stranded more than half a million vehicles and disrupted businesses from the commercial district of upscale Makati City to the Araneta Center, the entertainment hub of Metropolitan Manila. This area has enough high-rise offices and commercial buildings to crowd the entire island of Manhattan.
And as the people of San Roque battled hundreds of police and hundreds more from a private demolition crew into the late afternoon of Sept. 23, seemingly, the whole metropolis stood still.
The authorities were surprised by the fierce resistance they met. Never in the history of the San Roque conflict had they seen such a level of militant outcry.
The city officials were quick to put the blame on outside agitators. The presence of SWAT and special operation teams from the Philippine Armed Forces.made it apparent from the onset that they were expecting some elements of the underground to beef up the resistance.
The picture on the ground relates a different story. Children as young as 6, mothers cradling babies, elderly people with umbrellas stood side by side with fathers, teenagers and young college students in battling the intruders.
Not a single bullet was fired nor a molotov cocktail thrown – the weapons for the day were sticks and stones – debris left by the harsh demolition.
Uprooted families used their meager belongings to build barricades: tables, chairs, and beaten appliances choked the city. Undeniably, it was a successful attempt of the people’s resistance in sending the everyday normal life of a city off kilter.
Furthermore, as if to illustrate the strength of the unity of the people, a more poignant narrative emerged from schools around the area. Absenteeism hit 80% in those campuses with heavy enrollment of children from San Roque. The common excuse according to one of the principals was that students chose to stay with their parents to defend their homes.
With the news that resistance organizers were mobilizing support from Welfareville in Mandaluyong City on the south to Camarin Enclave in the northern most part of Manila and alarmed that upheaval could engulf the entire Greater Manila Area, President Benigno Aquino lll, who was on a U.S. tour ordered an immediate stop to the demolition.
It was a partial victory for the residents of San Roque and a tactical one for the resistance movement.
San Roque conflict is class warfare
San Roque is being demolished to make way for a commercial/residential/recreational development project pegged to attract the more affluent sector of the Philippine society. Banking on the success of Ortigas and Makati business projects, Quezon City Central Business District (QCCBD)is a potential gold mine in the eyes of local government officials and local capitalists.
The driving force behind the P3 billion project is none other than the World Bank itself. From its early inception the World Bank has sold the idea of QCCBD as the center of new and forward looking economic development within the Metro Manila area and outlying regions.
Ayala Corporation, the oldest and the biggest landlord in the country, holds the contract to develop the 250 hectare Triangle Park project. It will displace 16,000 poor families. Ironically the 37 hectare property where San Roque is nestled belongs to the National Housing Authority of the Philippines and is leased to Robinsons Land Corporation – one of the biggest mall and residential developers in the country.
Past World Bank projects were designed to expand capitalist activities, thus greatly enhancing the profitability of American companies. The Triangle Park development project will benefit Citigroup, American Express, Starbucks, KFC, Coca Cola, Nike, Gap, Hollywood film and music companies, and more.
San Roque is where the “rubber meets the road” in the antagonism between the capitalists and the poor.
The race against time
Before the national elections in May, the strategy of the community was to delay the demolition until the end of June when the new Aquino Administration took over, explained Teody B. Gacer, a local community organizer.
“The community is aware that Aquino made promises during his campaign for president to deal squarely with the problems of the urban poor once elected. We were counting on those promises,” said Gacer.
She also pointed out that in 2007 the Arroyo government bowed to the demands of the developers and the World Bank issued Executive Order 620 mandating the expeditious realization of the North Triangle development project.
Right after the signing of the presidential order, the attacks on San Roque intensified. Enormous pressure was put upon the community. Sporadic attempts to drive the residents out of their homes became more vicious and violent. No less than seven arson fires were set by hired goons in a span of two years rendering hundreds of families homeless.
Living in constant fear took its toll on the oppressed people of North Triangle. More than a third of families acceded to the government offer of voluntary relocation to some remote area in the province of Rizal.
With the lack of vital services like electricity and the opportunity to make a livelihood, they will defy the law and go back to their homes in the city as hundreds before them have already done.
A community of workers
San Roque, viewed from the outside seems no different from the other informal settlements that pepper the Greater Manila Area. It is a collection of hastily assembled shanties and cavernous cinder block structures. Poverty is apparent; but what makes San Roque different according to Butch Sardina of Bantay Pilipinas is thatthe community is highly organized.
Through the effort of the community council a collective was established and now supplies electricity and water to the residents of San Roque. The council has created jobs for some residents and has become self-sustaining in a very short period of time.
A cluster of permanent structures were also built to serve as a social hall, offices and meeting rooms. Forums and seminars are regularly facilitated by the council on leadership and community organizing that attracts not only local residents but also activists and organizers from different communities and sectors.
“The people are proud of these accomplishments, and contrary to prevailing notion that the people here are lazy and just waiting for handouts -themajority of the residents do work,” Sardina said.
“They are factory workers, taxi drivers, waiters, cooks, construction workers, store clerks, janitors, street sweepers and small entrepreneurs in the informal economy.”
Victims of greed
Meanwhile QCCBD is working overtime to eliminate the obstacle to its scheme, but there is no indication that the people of San Roque are willing to move out of the way without a fight and their grievances being heard.
“We are nothing in the eyes of the developers and bankers. To them what matters is the maximization of profit. The influx of foreign capital heightened the lust for wealth by local capitalists. They saw the potential of the North Triangle if developed commercially – they didn’t see the potential of our people – of San Roque as a thriving community within that development scheme. In the value system of the rich,we are worthless it seems,” said Edwin Nacpil of San Roque Community Coalition, North Triangle Alliance.
“We are not pushing for a winner-takes-all scenario here. We are being practical because it is our homes at stake. We even came up with a counter proposal wherein the split will be 80/20: 80% for their development project and 20% for socialized urban dwelling for our poor; but they are relentless in their 100% pursuit.
“I have the impression that the reason why QCCBD and its proponents are reluctant to accept our modest proposal is not because it might cost them millions or they will be forced to live side by side with us; but because the idea of us thriving as an independent community, managing our own affairs outside the sphere of their influence – if modeled and implemented by every poor community in the country – the very structure that is holding together the current system will be in question,” Nacpil concluded.
Days before the recent violent demolition, Nacpil was brutally attacked by unknown assailants and left for dead in a clear attempt by the developers to cripple the leadership of the fight back movement.
Far from being demoralized and cowered to submission, the people of San Roque stood up and heroically defended their homes and their community.
JUSTICE FOR THE URBAN POOR OF MANILA!
PEOPLE’S NEED OVER CORPORATE PROFIT!
