Urgent appeals
Urgent appeals
Posted 07:02am (Mla time) Jan 29, 2005
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the January 29, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
BY E-MAIL comes an urgent appeal in behalf of the women members of the Nagkakaisang Kababaihan ng Angeles City (Nagka), who find themselves embroiled in a "David and Goliath" struggle against the city government and Mayor Carmelo Lazatin.
Nagka is composed of women survivors of military prostitution and sexual exploitation who were dislocated by both the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo and the departure of the American forces from Clark Air Base. Around the time of the bases negotiations, Wedpro, an organization devoted to research, documentation and organization around women's issues, was commissioned to look into the situation of the women sex workers in the area and suggest means by which government could help them through the transition.
After the women were organized into Nagka in 1992, the Angeles city government decided to allocate a piece of public land then covered by lahar for use by the organization to help the women embark on income-generating activities.
The women put up stalls for eateries and shops in the area, but through the years, especially after the influx of foreigners who put up bars and entertainment places nearby, the humble stalls suddenly found themselves in the middle of a prime business property. This was when Nagka's troubles started.
Starting 1998, when the area became prime property, Nagka found itself having a harder time dealing with City Hall. "Every year, for so many years, they had to argue (with officials) why they should be allowed to continue," a backgrounder notes.
* * *
LAST year, Nagka joined dialogue-meetings with Lazatin, the City Council and barangay officials precisely to discuss the status of their occupation of the stalls.
Last November and December, unidentified men began to drop by the stalls, threatening and harassing the women stallholders. The dialogues continued until last Jan. 12. But even as the women were at the mayor's residence waiting for another dialogue, local government personnel showed up and announced a demolition, without benefit of a formal notice or order. When the women heard about it and informed the mayor, he supposedly remarked: "Wala na akong pakialam [I no longer care]."
With the help of Wedpro and other supporters, the women of Nagka approached national government offices for help, including the Office of the Vice President and the Commission on Human Rights, and through their intervention, succeeded in getting the mayor to issue a letter ordering the demolition of stalls to be held in abeyance pending further studies and the search for a relocation site. But just five days later, a demolition team of about 10 men started tearing down one of the stalls. When the Nagka officers showed them Lazatin's letter, they were even accused of creating a "forgery." The destruction of the rest of the stalls stopped only after barangay officials intervened.
* * *
FINDING their appeals to the mayor's goodwill unheeded (the councilors who had previously supported the women had slowly backed away), the women of Nagka went to court, with their counsel Evalyn Ursua filing a petition for a temporary restraining order against the continuance of the demolition. In the meantime, the demolition continued until most of the stalls were torn down.
Unfortunately, the local court declared that the issue was now a "fait accompli" since most of the structures had already been destroyed. An appeal was immediately filed and a decision is still awaited.
Meanwhile, the women have remained in the area, renaming their place "Nagka's Café by the Ruins," though despite their show of bravado, the women confess to living in fear for their safety.
"Fait accompli" it may be, but the destruction of Nagka's stalls for commercial development shouldn't be allowed to remain unchallenged or unpunished. Else, how will women who bought into government's promises of support and "rehabilitation" believe government's word again when it says it is looking after their interests?
* * *
ANOTHER urgent matter concerns the "survival" of 10 ancestral homes in the town of Baclayon, Bohol, each built around the turn of the century and cared for by the descendants of the original homeowners.
In a letter to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, representatives of the families appealed to the President to intervene in the plans of the Bohol provincial government to demolish their ancestral homes as part of the widening of the Baclayon coastal highway, which the houses border.
"In several dialogues with Gov. Erico Aumentado and after lodging with the authorities several letters of protest, we have been assured by the governor that a two-kilometer stretch east and west of the beautiful and historical church complex of Baclayon will be spared from the widening," the homeowners wrote the President.
And yet, despite these assurances, the Department of Public Works and Highways in Bohol indicated in a meeting with Baclayon residents that plans for the widening of the two-kilometer stretch of road would proceed. "If implemented, most of (our) houses will suffer partial or full demolition," the concerned homeowners write, while part of the church's belfry will be affected, too.
"We are not against development or modernization per se," the letter-writers state. What they are against is "destroying a major part of the tangible heritage that makes up the cultural identity of our community and town."
Achieving a happy middle ground is not all that impossible, the homeowners say. Officials need only look at the examples of Silay (in Negros Occidental) and Carcar (in Cebu) to realize how the past can continue to co-exist with the present and help shape the future.
Posted 07:02am (Mla time) Jan 29, 2005
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the January 29, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
BY E-MAIL comes an urgent appeal in behalf of the women members of the Nagkakaisang Kababaihan ng Angeles City (Nagka), who find themselves embroiled in a "David and Goliath" struggle against the city government and Mayor Carmelo Lazatin.
Nagka is composed of women survivors of military prostitution and sexual exploitation who were dislocated by both the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo and the departure of the American forces from Clark Air Base. Around the time of the bases negotiations, Wedpro, an organization devoted to research, documentation and organization around women's issues, was commissioned to look into the situation of the women sex workers in the area and suggest means by which government could help them through the transition.
After the women were organized into Nagka in 1992, the Angeles city government decided to allocate a piece of public land then covered by lahar for use by the organization to help the women embark on income-generating activities.
The women put up stalls for eateries and shops in the area, but through the years, especially after the influx of foreigners who put up bars and entertainment places nearby, the humble stalls suddenly found themselves in the middle of a prime business property. This was when Nagka's troubles started.
Starting 1998, when the area became prime property, Nagka found itself having a harder time dealing with City Hall. "Every year, for so many years, they had to argue (with officials) why they should be allowed to continue," a backgrounder notes.
* * *
LAST year, Nagka joined dialogue-meetings with Lazatin, the City Council and barangay officials precisely to discuss the status of their occupation of the stalls.
Last November and December, unidentified men began to drop by the stalls, threatening and harassing the women stallholders. The dialogues continued until last Jan. 12. But even as the women were at the mayor's residence waiting for another dialogue, local government personnel showed up and announced a demolition, without benefit of a formal notice or order. When the women heard about it and informed the mayor, he supposedly remarked: "Wala na akong pakialam [I no longer care]."
With the help of Wedpro and other supporters, the women of Nagka approached national government offices for help, including the Office of the Vice President and the Commission on Human Rights, and through their intervention, succeeded in getting the mayor to issue a letter ordering the demolition of stalls to be held in abeyance pending further studies and the search for a relocation site. But just five days later, a demolition team of about 10 men started tearing down one of the stalls. When the Nagka officers showed them Lazatin's letter, they were even accused of creating a "forgery." The destruction of the rest of the stalls stopped only after barangay officials intervened.
* * *
FINDING their appeals to the mayor's goodwill unheeded (the councilors who had previously supported the women had slowly backed away), the women of Nagka went to court, with their counsel Evalyn Ursua filing a petition for a temporary restraining order against the continuance of the demolition. In the meantime, the demolition continued until most of the stalls were torn down.
Unfortunately, the local court declared that the issue was now a "fait accompli" since most of the structures had already been destroyed. An appeal was immediately filed and a decision is still awaited.
Meanwhile, the women have remained in the area, renaming their place "Nagka's Café by the Ruins," though despite their show of bravado, the women confess to living in fear for their safety.
"Fait accompli" it may be, but the destruction of Nagka's stalls for commercial development shouldn't be allowed to remain unchallenged or unpunished. Else, how will women who bought into government's promises of support and "rehabilitation" believe government's word again when it says it is looking after their interests?
* * *
ANOTHER urgent matter concerns the "survival" of 10 ancestral homes in the town of Baclayon, Bohol, each built around the turn of the century and cared for by the descendants of the original homeowners.
In a letter to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, representatives of the families appealed to the President to intervene in the plans of the Bohol provincial government to demolish their ancestral homes as part of the widening of the Baclayon coastal highway, which the houses border.
"In several dialogues with Gov. Erico Aumentado and after lodging with the authorities several letters of protest, we have been assured by the governor that a two-kilometer stretch east and west of the beautiful and historical church complex of Baclayon will be spared from the widening," the homeowners wrote the President.
And yet, despite these assurances, the Department of Public Works and Highways in Bohol indicated in a meeting with Baclayon residents that plans for the widening of the two-kilometer stretch of road would proceed. "If implemented, most of (our) houses will suffer partial or full demolition," the concerned homeowners write, while part of the church's belfry will be affected, too.
"We are not against development or modernization per se," the letter-writers state. What they are against is "destroying a major part of the tangible heritage that makes up the cultural identity of our community and town."
Achieving a happy middle ground is not all that impossible, the homeowners say. Officials need only look at the examples of Silay (in Negros Occidental) and Carcar (in Cebu) to realize how the past can continue to co-exist with the present and help shape the future.
posted by Dante at 9:58 PM
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