“Victimization in life and death”
This is the description of urban poor group Balikwas Kadamay on the case of Floodway resident, Orlando Anzano, 52, who died of stroke during the three-day demolition of homes along the East Bank Road in Barangay Sta. Lucia, Pasig City. Around of 1,000 families in the community lost their homes.
Anzano was reported resting inside his house when he suffered a stroke as the demolition of his home and commotion among residents and implementers of the demolition started on October 18. He was brought to the hospital and died two days later.
As said by the group, “the case of Anzano only shows that government neglect are suffered by poor people while alive, but also until they die of poverty, homelessness and hunger.”
Anzano’s wake is held under a tent along East Bank Road in Purok 2, Barangay Sta. Lucia, Pasig City, where residents and their personal belongings were lodged after their homes were demolished.
“Relatives and neighbors of Anzano mourned his death while forced to struggle for their right to own the land they occupied in Pasig City,” said Rudy Villareal, Balikwas Kadamay spokesperson.
The family of Anzano and 300 more families remained in tents along Manggahan Floodway as they refused the P20,000 financial assistance to give up their claim on the land where their homes used to stand.
A relocation site in Calauan, Laguna was previously offered to the residents. But many who agreed to self-demolition in 2010 and were also relocated to Calauan, after Typhoon Ondoy flooded Metro Manila and when Manggahan Floodway was declared a danger zone, have come back to Floodway and other urban poor areas in Pasig and other cities for lack of livelihood in the relocation area.
Members of an organization of Manggahan Floodway residents accredited by the local government of Pasig, meanwhile, was offered relocation units in the low-rise building of the National Housing Authority just across the community.
The now-homeless residents said they remain firm in staying and pushing for their long-drawn demand for the awarding of Floodway land that they occupied for more than 40 years.
