‘Declare Aroma in Tondo as permanent housing site’

MANILA, Philippines — Families displaced by a fire that razed a community in Tondo, Manila are asking the city government to declare the area as a permanent housing site.

Around 100 residents of Aroma Compound in Tondo gathered in front of the Manila city hall yesterday.

They urged Mayor Honey Lacuna to declare Aroma Compound as a permanent resettlement site.

The community, composed of nine tenement-type housing buildings, may be sold to the private sector, according to Elmer Galario, secretary general of Liga at Ugnayan para sa Pagkakaisa ng mga Maralita sa Pilipinas or LUPA Pilipinas.

The group urged the local government to declare other areas in Manila with informal settler families as permanent housing sites.

These are Aroma, Baseco and Parola, all in Tondo.

These areas are easy targets of private development, especially the proposed Pasig River Expressway, according to Galario.

The residents failed to meet with Manila officials.

The group said the housing project implemented by former mayor Isko Moreno in Baseco reportedly benefited only 229 families.