(Eagle News) — The members of the urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap or KADAMAY have until May 30 to prove that they are eligible to receive free housing from the government. If not, they would have to vacate the housing units they occupied that day.
This was the result of the dialogue between the National Housing Authority (NHA) and the KADAMAY leaders who were responsible for the illegal occupation of some 5,000 government housing units by some 24,000 of their members.
During the dialogue on Monday, March 27, the NHA decided it would not push through with the scheduled eviction of the KADAMAY members on Tuesday, March 28.
“Hindi tuloy yung nakatakdang eviction bukas,” NHA spokesperson Elsie Trinidad. said on Monday.
“Ito yung nakitang initial step for a peaceful resolution. But it doesn’t mean na talagang tolerated na iyon,” she said referring to KADAMAY’s action of illegally occupying the housing units.
Thousands of urban poor families from Manila and Bulacan took over the unoccupied homes in a campaign they called “Occupy Bulacan” two weeks ago to assert what they said was the Filipino poor’s right to free housing from the government. Press reports said the National Housing Authority (NHA) last year reported that there were 52,341 idle houses nationwide that were meant for the personnel of Philippine National Police (PNP) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), but from this number, only 13 percent or 8,327 were occupied. Nearly a quarter of Manila’s 13 million residents live in slums due to poverty and a shortage of low-cost housing, studies have found. / AFP PHOTO / TED ALJIBE
KADAMAY members have until May 30 to prove they are qualified for gov’t housing
KADAMAY members want free housing, and they want the NHA to award the units to them even if the housing units had already been awarded to some 2,000 policemen, soldiers, and members of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP)
Another 3,000 of the units have also been originally earmarked for urban poor dwellers who had been living in danger zones, such as near creeks, rivers and esteros in Metro Manila.
For the KADAMAY members to continue to occupy government housing units, they should prove that they are below the poverty threshold, they should not have been awarded any previous housing units by the government, and they should not own any other house or property within Metro Manila.
And more importantly, they should follow the legal process set for the awarding of housing units by the government.
-Profiling of KADAMAY members to start on April 3
The NHA will start profiling the KADAMAY members on April 3. This will end on May 30.
They will also send notices to the previously awarded members of the Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), BFP and BJMP and will ask them if they are still interested to transfer to the 22-square-meter lots awarded to them in Bulacan.
The NHA said these police and military personnel have the option to apply instead for another housing project which would have units bigger than the current 22-square-meter houses.
If they send word, they do not want their lots in Bulacan anymore, only then will their units be considered for occupation by other urban poor beneficiaries.
This school vacation, the NHA will also use the housing units for the relocation of urban poor dwellers living in danger areas who had been chosen for free government housing, so the KADAMAY members would have to be transferred to other units.
Those KADAMAY members who would be found not eligible for government housing would have to go by May 30.
Most of the government housing units they occupied in Bulacan are still unifinished, with no windows, no water, and no electricity.
But the KADAMAY members still insisted on occupying these despite these deficiencies.
As of March 20, 2017, a total of 5,262 units from Pandi and San Jose del Monte Resettlement Sites were occupied by KADAMAY members.
“From the very beginning, NHA has recognized that valid yung sinisigaw nila na housing. Pero sabi rin ng NHA, we operate on a very limited budget,” NHA spokesperson, Elsie Trinidad said.
