The demolition paves the way for the construction of the first phase of the multi-billion dollar North Railway Development Project, a priority project of the Arroyo administration.
Housing authorities balked in the face of resistance shown by the rail dwellers in Sangandaan, Caloocan City. The site has been proposed to be the integrated railway terminal for both the North and South Railway Systems under the government’s railway modernization program.
The rail dwellers got a reprieve of sorts as Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) head Secretary Mike Defensor, in response to a request by Caloocan City Rep. Edgar Erice, ordered that "no houses be torn down this day." However, the demolition will continue beginning today.
In a dramatic show of protest, some 30 children of affected families staged a "die-in," stretching their frail bodies across the railroad tracks in front of National Housing Authority (NHA) demolition teams.
NHA Resettlement and Development Services Department chief Elsie Trinidad said her office and that of the North Railway Corp. (NRC) will be holding fort at the site for a month for the initial stage of the relocation of some 500 families in the area to Towerville in San Jose del Monte in Bulacan.
"Let them not say that there were no consultations. This is not true as they are claiming," Trinidad said.
"In fact, we have more than complied in terms of procedures, including entitlements and relocation packages… even more than what the law already provides," Trinidad further said. She said there had been sufficient consultations, general assembly meetings with affected families, field trips to the relocation site, including their preferred sites, and provided enough notice before demolition.
"More importantly, there has been no violence, no heavy equipment. And no chemical nor biological warfare in progresss," she added in jest.
In the face of the dramatic protest along the tracks, the demolition teams instead used their sledge hammers and crowbars on some 30 commercial structures that have sprouted on the PNR property over the years. Among those that were torn down was a 15-stall row of concrete structures built last year in the area formerly housing the offices of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS).