“IT’S LIKE a deplorable evacuation center for Mt. Pinatubo victims all over again.”
So was the Honorable Jesus Sangil, councilor of Angeles City, quoted as saying in our front page story here yesterday. This, upon beholding Northville 15 Village in Barangay Cutud, where some 3,000 families living “along the riles” of the old Philippine National Railways will be resettled to facilitate the construction of the much-delayed Caloocan-to-Clark phase of the Northrail project.
One did not have to take an ocular inspection of the site, the very pictures that accompanied the news story were more than enough to affirm Sangil’s observation.
Tin roofs so thin as to be dented by a cat’s paw and leak in a drizzle. Beams patterned after Pisa’s tower – leaning in all directions. Walls crocheted with cracks, in various stages of collapse. Unreinforced floors upon uncompacted soil made uneven by cracks. Drainage systems that act as catch basin for rain water. Flooded roads.
“It’s as if the families were rushed to be evacuated in an area ill-prepared, just like in the days of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption where more people died from ailments at evacuation centers than from the direct effects of the eruption.” Again, so said Sangil so rightly.
No, the houses are not for free. The beneficiaries needing to amortize the cost: P65,000 for the house; P75,000 for the 28-square-meter lot .Payable in 30 years. With a grace period of one year.
“We will pay on the second year at P200 a month for the first five years, and this will increase to P750 a month for the last five years,” Nathaniel Samson, president of the resettlers’ association KapitBisig said.
That’s much too much for these pigsties passed off for human habitat.
Hang the contractor, cried someone who claimed to have a unit in the village.
Consortia Dayrit, KapitBisig vice president , clarified though that they were informed that the contractor for the housing project had employed 10 sub-contractors to build the units.
There lies the root of the problem – the tail of the devil, as an ex-seminarian who sees any anomaly as sin is wont to say.
Sub-contracting is equated to sub-standard work. Especially in government. Again, the Mt. Pinatubo experience comes to the fore here. Remember the various scams? Sabo dam scam, megadike scam, desilting scam, and yes, the resettlement scams – with sub-contracting as their common denominator.
So the National Housing Authority is in a rush to beat a June deadline for the completion of the housing units.
So the welfare of the beneficiaries should be sacrificed?
“Perhaps the government did not really mind what kind of houses we are to live in because we are merely squatters. But we are also human.” So lamented William David, a beneficiary.
So we lament too that kind of government. Even as we still hold the hope that that government would still have the heart to look at Northville 15. That that government would find reason to consider the city council resolution of Sangil and his fellow councilor, Dr. Ruben Maniago asking President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to order a stoppage to the demolition of the houses of the families along the old railway in eight Angeles City barangays until they are first assured of better housing and community facilities at their resettlement site in Barangay Cutud .
That’s not too much to ask. Human beings – not pigs – being at stake here.
So was the Honorable Jesus Sangil, councilor of Angeles City, quoted as saying in our front page story here yesterday. This, upon beholding Northville 15 Village in Barangay Cutud, where some 3,000 families living “along the riles” of the old Philippine National Railways will be resettled to facilitate the construction of the much-delayed Caloocan-to-Clark phase of the Northrail project.
One did not have to take an ocular inspection of the site, the very pictures that accompanied the news story were more than enough to affirm Sangil’s observation.
Tin roofs so thin as to be dented by a cat’s paw and leak in a drizzle. Beams patterned after Pisa’s tower – leaning in all directions. Walls crocheted with cracks, in various stages of collapse. Unreinforced floors upon uncompacted soil made uneven by cracks. Drainage systems that act as catch basin for rain water. Flooded roads.
“It’s as if the families were rushed to be evacuated in an area ill-prepared, just like in the days of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption where more people died from ailments at evacuation centers than from the direct effects of the eruption.” Again, so said Sangil so rightly.
No, the houses are not for free. The beneficiaries needing to amortize the cost: P65,000 for the house; P75,000 for the 28-square-meter lot .Payable in 30 years. With a grace period of one year.
“We will pay on the second year at P200 a month for the first five years, and this will increase to P750 a month for the last five years,” Nathaniel Samson, president of the resettlers’ association KapitBisig said.
That’s much too much for these pigsties passed off for human habitat.
Hang the contractor, cried someone who claimed to have a unit in the village.
Consortia Dayrit, KapitBisig vice president , clarified though that they were informed that the contractor for the housing project had employed 10 sub-contractors to build the units.
There lies the root of the problem – the tail of the devil, as an ex-seminarian who sees any anomaly as sin is wont to say.
Sub-contracting is equated to sub-standard work. Especially in government. Again, the Mt. Pinatubo experience comes to the fore here. Remember the various scams? Sabo dam scam, megadike scam, desilting scam, and yes, the resettlement scams – with sub-contracting as their common denominator.
So the National Housing Authority is in a rush to beat a June deadline for the completion of the housing units.
So the welfare of the beneficiaries should be sacrificed?
“Perhaps the government did not really mind what kind of houses we are to live in because we are merely squatters. But we are also human.” So lamented William David, a beneficiary.
So we lament too that kind of government. Even as we still hold the hope that that government would still have the heart to look at Northville 15. That that government would find reason to consider the city council resolution of Sangil and his fellow councilor, Dr. Ruben Maniago asking President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to order a stoppage to the demolition of the houses of the families along the old railway in eight Angeles City barangays until they are first assured of better housing and community facilities at their resettlement site in Barangay Cutud .
That’s not too much to ask. Human beings – not pigs – being at stake here.
