Learning from the sins of the past

A recent report by a group of public health experts and epidemiologists from the University of California-Berkeley disclosed that people living in urban slum areas are particularly “vulnerable to the contracting and spreading of the new coronavirus due to the close living conditions and the lack of basic sanitation.”

The slums – also known as “squatters’ area” in the Philippines – are certainly among the most “hospitable” areas for the coronavirus to be transmitted because of the high population density, with people living in wall-to-wall shanties that make social distancing virtually impossible to practice, compounded by the squalor that comes when garbage disposal is a challenge and access to clean water is difficult or non-existent.

This is especially true in Metro Manila (which accounts for majority of the COVID-19 cases in the country) that has an estimated four million informal settlers or squatters. While the government is doing what it can to help mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the marginalized sectors of society, the situation involving people living in squatters’ areas – where the virus could spread like wildfire – should more than ever make legislators consider the repeal of Republic Act No. 7279 or the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992, also known as the “Lina Law.”

This piece of legislation has practically decriminalized squatting due to a provision that requires property owners to relocate the squatters or else pay them a large amount of money, which not only has encouraged people to illegally put up structures on vacant lots, abandoned or condemned buildings, but worse, has been used and abused by professional squatters who make money by putting up structures that they rent out especially to people coming from the provinces who want to try out their luck in the metropolis. When these pros get evicted, they just move on to another place and do the same thing over and over again.

This is especially true in Quezon City where people with private lands were forced to abandon their property because of the difficulty in relocating the informal settlers, many of whom also refuse to leave even after receiving payment, like the slum dwellers in a property owned by the National Housing Authority located at Agham Road in Sitio San Roque who sources said were already paid several times but refused to be relocated to Bulacan. Quezon City by the way has the highest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection in the national capital region, prompting the city government to place 20 areas under a two-week “special concern lockdown” due to the high concentration of active cases.

Another reason for the high-density population in urban areas is because we completely threw out all the zoning laws in Metro Manila, originally designed to have only five million people but currently has a 13 million population.

A good friend who currently is a Cabinet secretary told me he feels this is the best time for the government to conduct repair and maintenance work on the railways systems for the MRT which was not possible because of the number of passengers who relied on the continued operations of the rail network. This is an opportunity to put the MRT to perfect working condition, with more trains or coaches added to serve more people even while observing social distancing.

One of the reasons why the MRT has been in such a state of disrepair is due to the unceremonious termination of Japanese maintenance provider Sumitomo that was replaced by PH Trams, which resorted to patchwork or band-aid repairs. It went downhill from there with the succeeding maintenance providers not giving long-term solutions to the MRT problems. Again, another past sin that needs restitution.

One silver lining of this virus though is the improved air quality due to the reduced number of vehicles plying the streets of Metro Manila during the lockdown. Vehicle emissions are among the biggest contributors to air pollution which has been linked to as many as 27,000 deaths in 2018 alone.

It’s time we look into long-term solutions to manage traffic in Metro Manila while pushing down pollution levels, like designating priority routes for buses. Government can also consider employing jeepney drivers for government-owned transport systems such as shuttles so as not to displace them.

We can also look at the example of France that is encouraging people to use bicycles to keep pollution levels down and maintain social distancing in the process. The government can study the possibility of designating bike lanes on select thoroughfares and also use this downtime to repair potholes and other needed road improvements.

A study conducted by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health revealed the link between air pollution and higher COVID-19 mortality rates, where a small increase in long-term exposure to PM2.5 (particulate matter that are so small they can penetrate the lungs) leads to a large increase in the coronavirus death rate – suggesting a connection between pollution and a higher risk of death from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

“The study results underscore the importance of continuing to enforce existing air pollution regulations to protect human health both during and after the COVID-19 crisis,” the researchers wrote.

It’s time for us to think “out-of-the-box” and prepare for the time when we go back to “normal” which may take six months or maybe more. Things may look bleak for now, but let’s not be pessimistic. There will always be a silver lining behind this dark cloud hanging over us.

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