300,000 SQUATTERS!

SOMETHING SMELLS

By:   Agnes T. Jalandoni

One warm morning, my friend Nena and I were passing Mandalagan bridge on the way home. From a distance I spotted 3 children running across the road. Suddenly, a speeding truck appeared, missing the three boys ages 6, 4, and 2 by a hairline.  We pulled over to the curb and looked back at them.   The older one grabbed the toddler on to the curb, and then slapped the 4 year old.  I got off and walked toward them thinking, “Go back, go back.  It’s none of your business.”  As the older boy spotted me he looked alarmed, probably noting how I had seen him slap the younger boy.  Filthy, barely clothed and scared the three brothers looked like they hadn’t eaten for days.   I asked them what they were doing running across the bridge like that.  The older one said that he had run after the second brother who decided to look for their mother.  She left early to look for their father. Three days had passed since he too, left to find work.  The youngest just followed the two. Their last meal -  lunch - yesterday! Their home? A shack under the bridge. 

As we drove away we were quiet. How many times had we crossed Mandalagan bridge and not see the hut teetering on the river bank?  How many live in similar, if not worse conditions in our city of smiles?  Who are these people?  What is a squatter?     

Since we started our involvement in BAHA ( the Bacolod Anti – Baha Alliance)   we have walked through many of the squatter areas here in our city.  Starting with one of the bigger areas in Bata and Banago we have seen appalling conditions for the poor in our city. We drive past them daily and somehow, not bother to look and see. We began to realize that these shacks built on the waterways actually cause the flooding. We discovered that all these structures which include pig pens, toilets, basketball courts etc… are illegal. They block the natural flow of water in the creeks and rivers.  Why do many of our settlers continue to build at risk of their safety, and for some, their lives? When the floods hit they make do with temporary relocation sites, receive a bag of rice, noodles and canned sardines from the government, then go back. We have seen toilets split open, human excrement mixing with pig’s dung from the pig pens and worse, children playing a few feet away. This is a real threat to the health of thousands living under these conditions.  The potential for an epidemic to strike or deaths resulting from flooding are all too real to evade.  When this happens, no one will be spared.

2007 NSO statistics report that our population in Bacolod has reached 499,497. In recent interviews BHA Head Josephine Segundino, cited that the current number of informal dwellers or squatters in the city may have already reached 60 to 65 per cent of the city’s population.  300, 000 people in our city do not own homes and are occupying relatively unstable dwelling places. 200,000 squatters!  One out of two people do not own a home!   These are alarming numbers. 

Ms. Segundino has recommended several proposals to meet the staggering demand for housing. The Mayor plans to purchase 30 to 60 hectares for additional relocation sites to provide housing for 1000 households pending ejection. This is roughly enough for 5000 people-  5000 out of the 300,000? If we are growing each year by 1.38 per cent and both the relocation sites in Barangay Handumanan and Vista Alegre are almost filled, Bacolod will soon become the city of the homeless.  Ms. Segundino emphasized further that the purchase of land to accommodate the growing number of people in the city has to be sustained for the next ten years.   

How do we move so many people to the relocation sites?  What livelihood programs will be made available for them to make the transfer attractive? What does the law provide?  Does our city allocate sufficient funds for landbanking?  That is, enough to sustain the recommended plan by the BHA to address the growing population in the city?  Is there a comprehensive city development plan that covers all the critical areas required to allow our city to grow and provide the basic services for all of us? 

RA 7279 is the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992.   I Googled this and began to read.  The Act was finally passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate on Feb. 3, 1992.  16 years later, Bacolod City has 300,000 squatters and growing! This is simply just not right. I will explain this in my next column.