PR - Urban poor denounce Roxas’ for claiming that DAP benefitted informal settlers

Press Release

20 July 2014

Contact Person:

Anthony Barnedo 0949-7518792

Kongreso ng Pagkakaisa ng Maralitang Lungsod

Urban poor denounce Roxas’ for claiming that DAP benefitted informal settlers

REACTING to claims made by Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas that 10 billion pesos from the recently declared unconstitutional Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) were spent to relocate waterways communities, an urban poor federation leader says it is the exact opposite.

Roxas was reported to have said that, “The money was used for the welfare of the people. The interest of the people always prevails,” during the unveiling of the Zero-ISF Water Easement in Barangay Salapan in San Juan City.

“Roxas is trying his hardest but obviously failing to paint himself as to looking after the interests of the informal settlers when in fact, the relocation program of the government with or without DAP funds is not beneficial but also consequentially detrimental to the poor,” said Anthony Barnedo of Kongreso ng Pagkakaisa ng Maralitang Lungsod (KPML).

Barnedo branded that the socialized housing program of the government as “Rated: PG or Rated: Pure Gimmickry for all the housing officials want is to bulldoze us to far-flung areas for us to rot to death. It is not for the betterment of the poor when the government “saves” us from a danger zone, only to condemn us to a death zone,”

On Roxas’ statement, he clarified that, “It is categorically untrue that the usage of DAP funds were beneficial to the informal settlers along the waterways because the government’s housing units are not for free, poor families will still have to pay monthly mortgages out of their contractual jobs. The government will even profit out of our miseries through interests”.

“The DAP’s true beneficiaries are the real estate developers who cornered billions-worth of government low-cost housing contracts. The DAP is the milking cow of the likes of Noynoy Aquino’s former classmate, Chito Cruz of the National Housing Authority and Gerry Acuzar, owner of New San Jose Builders, Inc. and brother-in-law of Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa,” the urban poor leader pointed out.

The KPML condemned Roxas for using the miseries of the poor to shield himself and Aquino from public accountability by justifying their usage of illegally juggled public funds.

“If there are available public funds and if both Aquino and Roxas truly stand for the welfare of the marginalized like they claim then provide free socialized housing and abandon their plans privatize public hospitals for indigents among others”, he asserted.

The militants believes that the government is heartless for it unjustly and forcibly uproots the informal settlers from their communities, work and school, only to be dumped to areas without even basic necessities and infrastructure such as schools, markets, day care centers, potable water, and steady supply of electricity and drainage pipes.

The most damaging, they say, “is the lack of jobs or opportunities to eke a living and pay their mortgages”.

The KPML together with ally Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino just recently announced that they are now calling for the ouster of Aquino and the establishment of a government of the masses and not the constitutional succession of the Vice President.

The groups vows to mobilize thousands of its members and affiliates on July 28, Aquino’s 5th State of the Nation Address.###