Government urged to allow UN-led mission to probe housing situation in RP

Following the United Nations probe on unexplained killings, the government is now being urged to allow a UN-led mission to look into the housing situation in the country.

A Geneva-based group, Center on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), asserted that forced evictions and destruction of housing in the Philippines continue unabated despite adequate laws and an international convention ensuring the peoples’ right to housing.

Lawyer Dan Nicholson, coordinator of COHRE’s Asia and Pacific program, said the government has "repeatedly chosen to overlook the human rights of citizens by carrying out arbitrary forced evictions."

Nicholson said their group has been conducting missions to the Philippines every year since 2004.

According to Nicholson, the Philippines is "one of the worst" in terms of housing rights worldwide that they are poised to write a letter to President Arroyo to ask her to invite the UN special rapporteur for adequate housing for a fact-finding mission here.

Specifically, the group scored the forced evictions of people by the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the displacement of families along railways to give way to the government’s Northrail-Southrail Linkage Project.

Lawyer Bienvenido Salinas II, of the Urban Poor Associates, lamented that despite ample laws to protect the rights of the Filipino people, violations of these rights remain rampant.

He cited the Urban Development and Housing Act and even the Constitution, which proscribes the inhumane manner of demolishing houses or establishments.

"Further, the Philippine government should be reminded that it is a signatory to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights," Salinas said.

Around mid-2006, COHRE visited the 53.337-hectare property in Cabuyao, Laguna, which was designated as among the relocation sites for families affected by the Northrail-Southrail Linkage Project.

The COHRE said more than 29,000 families have been moved to different relocation sites due to the infrastructure project of the government.

During the visits, the group documented the death of six children in the Cabuyao relocation site because of diarrhea, which they blamed on the lack of potable water and on the dumpsite located right within the boundary of the resettlement area.

Residents complained that they get their water from a "shallow well," which they can only use for bathing and washing. 

They also complained that they would have to buy their drinking water at P35 per five gallons.

The group also visited other relocation sites in Towerville and Northville IV in Bulacan, and Southville in Laguna.

Similarly, COHRE noted the people’s inaccessibility to electricity and potable water in these resettlement sites. 

It further noticed the "extreme difficulty" of earning a living in these areas since they are far from Metro Manila.

"Given the Philippines’ poor human rights reputation, we call on the government to take concrete steps to prevent any further housing rights violations. Economic progress should never be achieved at the expense of human rights and its society’s poorest and most vulnerable members," said Jean de Plessis, executive director of COHRE. – Katherine Adraneda