QC gov’t eases the pain for Payatas survivors

Almost four years after 50 feet of garbage came crashing down on houses in the Payatas dump in Quezon City, survivors are slowly getting over the tragedy that claimed hundreds of lives.

The current Quezon City administration, for its part, has been working to help ease some of the financial distress, lining up livelihood and monetary assistance programs to help some 660 survivors of the July 10, 2000 tragedy reintegrate themselves into the mainstream of society and pursue productive lives.

Earlier this week, Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. personally distributed some P1.9 million in financial aid to the victims of the trashslide to highlight the continued effort in the rehabilitation of those affected.

The mayor handed P3,000 each to an initial batch of survivors in simple rites held in Barangay Payatas last Monday. He said the P1.9-million cash assistance was an offshoot of a resolution approved by the city council last January.

The measure cited that while the Quezon City government has already given financial assistance to those who died in the tragedy, there is still a need to extend financial assistance to the families that were fortunate to have survived.

In July 2000, typhoons dumped heavy rains over a period of over a week in the metropolis. The non-stop rains caused one side of the Payatas garbage dump to collapse, burying hundreds of shanties.

Some 130 were killed and hundreds more were hurt and rendered homeless by the disaster, which was described allegedly as both a natural and man-made disaster. A class-action suit filed by the victims against certain government officials is still pending in court.

Teresa Mariano, chief of the city’s department of social services and development, said the last batch of beneficiaries received cash assistance at her office yesterday morning.

"We will continue providing the necessary assistance until the survivors fully recover from their psychological and financial problems," she said.

Apart from the monetary assistance the city government has also provided the residents a livelihood support program as well as counseling and providing relocation sites for those displaced.

Mariano said survivors who were relocated at Barangay Kasiglahan in Montalban, Rizal are getting back on their feet.

"We are continuously monitoring their progress. Some of them are now gainfully employed," she said.

To avoid the repeat of the tragedy, the city government has sought the approval from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for the conversion of the 20-hectare Payatas area from an open dump into a controlled facility.

No less than DENR Secretary Elisea Guzon has praised the city government for making Payatas not only an environmentally sound project, but also a concrete and sustainable model for waste management.

The area has also become an alternative source of energy after the Philippine National Oil Corp. successfully extracted methane to generate electricity for the site’s night operations.