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Vice President Noli “Kabayan” De Castro today responded to the accusations of a non-government association that names the Philippines as one of the top three housing rights violators in the world in 2006, saying it was “unreasonable, unfair and ridiculous.”

The Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) recently named the Philippines as one of the recipients of its 2006 Housing Rights Violator awards along with Nigeria and Greece.

The organization claims the Philippine government “continues to evict hundreds of thousands of people in the name of ‘beautification’ and ‘development’, with the urban poor being the worst affected.”

De Castro, who chairs the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), took issue with COHRE’s use of the word ‘eviction’ in the case of the families affected by the Rail Linkage Projects.

“After citing the so-called evictions, they said in the very next sentence that the families were moved to relocation sites. That’s not eviction, that’s relocation—and there’s a world of difference in the case of the North Rail and South Rail families. We did not forcibly eject them from their homes. We moved them from the railroad tracks to subdivisions where we provided them with home lots they could actually own. We gave them shelter security so the government can work on improving the railway system, which thousands of people depend on.” he said.

“The irony here is that if we had left those families in their cramped shanties and unsanitary slums along the railroad tracks, we probably would not be in this list of so-called housing rights violators,” he added.

“We have provided security of tenure to some 28,000 families, in locations that were chosen by the majority of the relocatees themselves. I’m not saying their situation now is perfect, but it’s definitely better than the one they left behind,” he stated.

The Vice President pointed out that the relocation was voluntary and that the affected families were adequately informed and consulted prior to relocation.

“We talked to the people through the Local Inter-Agency Committees (LIAC) prior to relocation, and we explained the incremental development process. We looked for in-city relocation sites as much as possible, or near-city in the case of Manila. And we did not intimidate the families to agree to the relocation,” he stated.

De Castro also denied the accusation that the relocation sites did not have services such as potable water, electricity and sanitation facilities.

“Service providers have installed or are installing power and water facilities. We are fast-tracking the process for all of the families to have individual connection to these facilities, which is being subsidized to the extent possible,” he stated.

“This is an improvement compared to their situation along the railroad tracks, where they had to resort to illegal connections,” he added. (more)

In line with the incremental development, the Vice President said that the residents are being given livelihood assistance in the form of trainings, credit and loan assistance and even job referrals.