Several communities continue to suffer under the UP Master Development Plan, aimed at privatizing and commercializing areas within the campus. Threats of demolition consistently plague the families residing within the communities, severely affecting their livelihood and upscaling insecurity as no concrete set of plans are laid out for their possible relocation sites.
Four families in Pook Malinis whose homes have been demolished grapple with their living conditions, and are now reportedly renting within the homes of their neighbors. Demands have been raised by the residents of Pook Malinis, resounding their calls for 1) the UP administration’s provision of a proper relocation site or the permission to allow the residents to reconstruct their demolished homes, 2) remove anti-people housing restrictions, and 3) total removal of any demolition plans and for the junking of the UP Master Development Plan.
Pook Arboretum has recently obtained victory after halting an impending ocular to be supposedly conducted for the construction of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) Diliman. Residents firmly asserted their demand that no demolition will take place unless any proper relocation plans are provided, and that no commercial establishments will be built, returning areas within the Arboretum to “protected forest area classification.”
Residents of Village C, on the other hand, secured a dialogue with the administration, successfully registering their grievances and demands on defending their community from demolition. Pook Village C is being eyed as a site for the UP Master Development Plan’s tentative faculty housing project.
Not less than 50 families were assured relocation in Pook Marilag by the Office of the Community Relations (OCR); however, housing facilities were reported to be made with poor-quality materials.
UP Kilos Na Multisectoral Alliance asserts the need for protection of the residents who are constantly at the receiving end of state forces’ intrusion within the campus. They state that police baselessly arrest and surveil residents in the communities. UP Kilos Na also echoes the lack of subsidies received even by beneficiaries within the community. Workers in the essential sectors have yet to receive their hazard pay.
UP Kilos Na will also hold the “KomyUP Fair: Sunday Market para sa Ayuda at Karapatan” on May 30, Sunday from 8AM to 5PM as communities continue to call on for support from the university’s constituents and other sectors to resound their demands in defending their communities from any threat of demolition especially without ample assistance from the administration even amid the pandemic.
Featured graphic courtesy of UP Kilos Na Multisectoral Alliance.
