PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte will not tolerate settlers who forcefully occupied government housing projects in Pandi, Bulacan.
Duterte said the illegal settlers will be evicted with force to settle the ongoing deadlock between the occupying families and the National Housing Authority.
“If you want to ignore the law, you cannot do that. I will force the issue with eviction,” Duterte said, scolding the illegal settlers of placing the government in an embarrassing position.
“Let’s have a dialogue. Don’t do that because that’s anarchy. You just give me an excuse. Do not do that because the government appears to be inutile. Don’t do that to me. I know what I have to do. I will do what I have to do even if it pulls me down,” he said.
Meanwhile, a congressman sought a congressional probe into the illegal seizure of 5,208 idle housing units in five separate sites in different barangays in Pandi, Bulacan to members of the urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damaging Mahihirap.
In filing House Resolution 875, Negros Occidental Rep. Alfredo Benitez asked appropriate committees in the House of Representatives members to look into the takeover of the housing units in different areas namely, the San Jose Heights, Villa Elise, Pandi Residences 3, Pandi Village 2, and Padre Pio.
“The said takeover of the housing units should be an opportunity for Congress to look into the current resettlement programs of the government it is incumbent upon the Philippine Congress to oversee the implementation of laws in order to identify possible necessary program and policy interventions that will lead towards the realization of the original objectives of the enacted policies,” Benitez, chairman of the House committee on housing and urban development, said.
Benitez noted in his resolution that Kadamay justified their action so as “to highlight the urban poor’s clamor to address the right of the indigents to free and mass housing and also to protest the continuous neglect of the poor for mass housing in pursuit of a profit-oriented roadmap that favors the business sector.”
Republic Act7279 mandates the government to undertake a national housing program that shall ensure the provision of decent shelter the underprivileged and homeless citizens, Benitez said in his resolution.
Last March 8, Kadamay members marched to the government housing sites in Bulacan to occupy the vacant housing units developed by the National Housing Authority (NHA) built for members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.