Exploiting Filipino Urban Poor

The ‘politically correct’ term now being used now is ‘informal settlers’ instead of squatters.

But the double talk did little to change the fact that the Quezon City North Triangle area turned into into a war zone with the squatters resisting their transfer to a resettlement site 23 kilometers away in Montalban, Rizal engaged in a stone-throwing spree to keep demotion men of the National Housing Authority from tearing down their shanties.

As anarchy prevailed, the stretched of EDSA bordering TriNoMa was forcibly closed.

But what’s galling is now the government of Quezon City which tolerated the entry of squatters into the public property and actively courted the residents’ vote in the last elections is now washing its hands of any moral responsibility to convince the squatters to peaceably vacate the area.

The picture that emerges, rightly or wrongly, is that commercial interests matter more than helping the urban poor.

There is no question that the squatters do not have any legal claim on the property.

But our politicians are, at the very least, being mentally dishonest in dealing with the squatters whom they exploited politically but are now blind to their troubles and simply tags them as "professional squatters"!

That maybe true in certain instances.

But the truth is the government also makes money from the business that spout within the squatter areas.

Shame on you!!!