Photo from Kadamay
DAVAO CITY, Philippines – In the midst of the serious threat hurled by President Rodrigo Duterte, the militant group Kadamay expressed unity among their ranks to withstand subjugations and vowed to continue staging more occupations of idle housing projects.
In a statement of Thursday, there’s no way the public order of Duterte to the Philippine National Police will cow the organization from pursuing its advocacies for the poor and the homeless Filipinos.
Discontinuing the organization’s work is impossible in a situation where the administration continues to sink the country’s economy and its most vulnerable citizens, the statement stressed.
Duterte warned on Thursday the members of Kadamay who occupied a housing project for the police and soldiers in Rodriguez, Rizal last Wednesday.
The President ordered the Kadamay members to vacate the area by Friday noon, June 15.
After the deadline, Duterte said he will ask the PNP, particularly the Special Action Force to forcibly evict the Kadamay members from the housing area.
Kadamay national chairperson Gloria Arellano said the Duterte government, instead of getting into the root of the problem, is eager to resolve the situation with violence; something that has worked to the detriment of the country so far.
“Tagos sa bulsa ang epekto ng TRAIN Law, napakahina na rin ng halaga ng piso, kawalan ng trabahong may nakabubuhay na saod at paparami ang homeless tapos aasahan ni Digong na huhupa ang pagkilos ng mahihirap? Imposible iyan kung walang tunay na pagbabago,” Arellano said.
On the issue of housing, Arellano emphasized that as long as the National Housing Authority fails to implement the provisions of Joint Resolution No. 2, the protest actions of the homeless will not cease.
She was referring to the Joint Resolution No. 2 that was ratified by the Senate and the Lowe House and approved by Duterte last May 9.
READ: Solon tells Duterte to ‘kill’ homelessness, not the poor
The group also slammed Malacanang’s media outfit for labeling the actions of the homeless as an ‘invasion.’
“Sobra naman ang ‘invasion,’ mapayapa kaming lumalaban. Ano kami, China? Hindi ba’t kayo naman ang nag-aalok sa China ng mga teritoryo at ekonomiya na dapat para sa mga Pilipino?” Arellano said.
The group pointed out that the heart of the issue is still the persistence of idle housing and all that comes with it, to include contractors that have not been put to justice along with the NHA officials that allowed for this to happen; and the significant changes to the policies of the housing sector that would swiftly rectify this among others.
Kadamay also corrected the NHA’s data of 55,000 unoccupied units stating that 114, 409 is the number of idle housing units in the latest report of the Commission on Audit.
“Would occupations still happen if the NHA and the Duterte government was doing its job properly? We serve the poor and homeless, you side with capitalists, large developers, and cronies in government,” the group said. (davaotoday.com)
