“Ngayong gabi, sa paglipat nyo sa inyong bagong mga tirahan, makakatulog kayo nang mahimbing. Hindi nyo na kailangan na mag-alala na baka sa inyong pagtulog ay tangayin ng baha ang inyong bahay o sirain ang inyong mga pundar na kagamitan,”
– DILG Secretary Mar Roxas speech to informal settlers from Estero Tripa de Gallina in Pasay City
It was 2:00 early morning in the wee hours of September 20 when Magdalena de la Cruz, a 75 year-old resident of Block 1K-1 in Kasiglahan village found out flood water was rising fast inside her home. She immediately cried out for help from neighbors. “Humihingi ako ng tulong dahil ang asawa ko may sakit na emphysema, wala man lang ni isa na tumulong sa akin dahil lahat ay bawat isa ay nililigtas nila ang pamilya nila” ( I was crying for help and my husband is sick with emphysema, no one helped me because everyone was busy securing their own families) laments Magdalena. She instantly thought of her husband who is suffering from asthma and quickly took the heavy trolley which contains an oxygen tank and other important medicines. At that point, material properties seemed to have no value that she along with her husband barely managed to save themselves from the rushing water.
Her television set was destroyed by the flood but she managed to put some of her belongings on top of a hammock in her house. Items from her small sari-sari store were swept off by the flood water. Eventually, the couple managed to wade through the flood made their way to a nearby elevated shelter.
Magdalena is just one among thousands of residents affected by worsening dangerous floods in Kasiglahan Village, a designated relocation site for displaced informal settler families all over Metro Manila. During the onslaught of Typhoon Mario, the housing units along the creek were submerged up to 7 feet high. She has been residing in the relocation site for three years and with each passing year the floods Magdalena believes that the water level is on a consistent rise.
Magdalena was once a resident of Barangay Old Balara in Quezon City when a road widening project evicted her along with other informal settler families who were all transferred to the Kasiglahan relocation village.
Kasiglahan Village: Danger awaits
“We were brought from a dangerous area but we were brought to the most dangerous area” she said.
In 2014, Kasiglahan village is already home to some 24,000 informal settler families evicted from their original homes in the metropolis.
In an investigative report by Chay Florentino-Holifena of PCIJ, Kasiglahan Village was first conceptualized during the Ramos administration in an attempt to menacingly clear the Pasig River from ‘obstructions’ with very little consideration to the poor families situated along the river. The actual construction of the village took place during the term of former President Joseph ‘Erap’ Estrada, which initially covered a span of 600 hectares. The developer of the site, New San Jose Builders continued to construct low construction cost housing despite the fact that the relocation site is considered perilous to lives. According to the state agency PHIVOLCS, the whole village smacks right on the Western Marikina Fault Line. Its proximity to the Wawa dam also made it susceptible to frequent flooding.
Finding greener pastures
Magdalena was born and raised in the province of Antique. Born to a poor family, her father earned a living as a scavenger, collecting bottles which he then later sold to junk shops. She was unable to continue her high school education due to financial difficulties. The thought of bringing food to the family’s table became a priority over studies. She decided to move to Metro Manila with hopes of ‘greener pastures’ or opportunities for her to land a better paying job than in the province.
Shortly after staying in Manila she got the chance of crossing the border to what she thought as “perhaps the greenest pastures.” She became an overseas Filipino worker in the Middle East where she proudly said that she was able to earn relatively better than all her previous jobs in the Philippines combined all together. After her contract ended as domestic helper in Saudi Arabia she then moved to Lebanon where she spent a couple of years before returning back to the Philippines when internal conflict broke in Lebanon. Her family to feed still in mind, she then worked again as domestic helper in Saipan, Taiwan, and Cyprus.
It was in Cyprus when she found a plastic bag full of money lying on the street. Despite being urged by her friends to keep the money for herself, Lola Magdalena resisted the temptation and surrendered the bag to authorities. This incident was picked up by local news media, and in an old magazine clipping, when asked why she opted to return the money, she answered “Still the fear of God and the dignity of my countrymen prevailed”.
Her contract eventually expired and was lured to fly to Japan but ended up with a recruitment agency providing erroneous and falsified travel documents. From that point, she already reached old age, and decided to already stay in the Philippines and spend time with her family she hardly interacted upon for years of untiring work.
The case of missing funds for informal settlers
In 2013, the PDAF scam came into light after the revelation of Benhur Luy that high officials were allegedly involved in stealing funds in the billions pesos with the connivance of Janet Lim Napoles whose fake NGOs became conduits for illegal fund transfers. This opened a Pandora’s Box of anomalies, with the Disbursment Acceleration Program being exposed as a scam much bigger than that of PDAF. First exposed by Senator Jinggoy Estrada as a form of bribery during then Chief Justice Corona’s impeachment trial, DAP’s existence was later confirmed by no less than the Secretary Butch Abad of the Department of Budget and Management. The Department of Budget and Management later on released a list of projects of DAP projects and among the top allocations on the list were projects intended for the benefit of informal settlers.
On October 2011, The DBM released P11.5 Billion pesos from the DAP, allocated for the in-city relocation of informal settlers living in danger areas. According to urban poor group KADAMAY, P50B is the amount of the Informal Settlers Fund(ISF), and P10B is allotted annually to the National Housing Authority(NHA) for the construction of in-city relocation housing projects.
Confrontation with Officials
On October 3, 2014, The Montalban Relocatees Alliance(MRA),an organization representing different associations in Kasiglahan, held a picket protest in front of the local NHA office in Rodriguez Rizal. They demanded a dialog between NHA officials to discuss issues faced by Kasiglahan Village residents.
A dialog between Kasiglahan residents and the National Housing Authority took place on October 7, 2014. Among those who attended were Mrs. Elizabeth Matipo, NHA Officer-in-charge assigned in Rodriguez Rizal, and Engineer Rene Samson of New San Jose Builders, Inc.
“NHA has an allocation of P5 billion in the 2015 budget and P4.9 billion in the 2014 budget” Mrs. Matipo confirmed. “But that money is not intended for Kasiglahan Village residents, it is allocated for the victims of Typhoon Sendong, the Bohol earthquake and Yolanda victims”. She further added that “ It is not upon the General Manager (of the NHA) alone to decide where the funding goes, it has to be done through the proper guidelines.”
In the forum, Mrs. Matipo and Engineer Rene Samson both agreed that the long term solution to the problem of flooding in Montalban, Rizal is the dredging of the river spanning Montalban, San Mateo and Marikina. The NHA also added that “Funds from the local congressman is insufficient, what we need is funding from the Senate and the DBM”
Both NHA official Elizabeth Matipo and Engineer Rene Samson declined to be interviewed after the forum.
‘Treat me as a human being’
After surviving typhoon Mario, Lola Magdalena’s top priority was to find money so that she could once again buy goods for her sari-stari store. She was able to borrow P2,000 from a kind neighbor. Meager earnings from the the sari-sari store is the main source for the old couple’s daily survival.
The items in Lola Magdalena dela Cruz’s sari-sari store were washed away by the flood
Recalling life as a migrant worker, Lola Magdalena shares her secret on how she was able to endure long years working abroad . Apart from the salary given her, she demanded her boss three simple things: “Treat me as a human being, provide me food and a give me a little freedom”.
Back in the Philippines, when asked if she receives those three simple things from the current Aquino administration, not a single word came out her lips. Her eyes then shifted to the creek beside her house. After a moment of silence, Lola Magdalena slowly shook her head. ###
