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Monday, November 08, 2004
Maxey: Time bomb along the avenue
By Ram Maxey
Bar None
'Along Dacudao Avenue, there is a man-made disaster in the making. Does anybody out there care?'
IT'S been weeks since dozens of squatter-families were evicted from a titled property and their houses torn down by a demolition team along Dacudao Avenue in Agdao, Davao City. The area, looking like a cyclone had swept across it overnight and left it looking like those war pictures showing the remains of a huge city block laid desolate by bombing, is ringed with strands of barbed-wire to deter any future encroachment by unauthorized persons.
The no-trespassing signs are a reminder to all and sundry of the utter power of a Torrens Title. But that is not the crux of this piece.
As in most cases of squatting here or elsewhere, government authorities have always pointed the finger at what they call "professional squatters" as the masterminds who entice the ignorant and the gullible into joining them in such an illegal enterprise in the belief that there is security in numbers.
In this latest misadventure where the law once again has asserted itself over numbers, most of the squatters have relocated to other parts of the city--including of course the "professionals" who simply returned to their legal residences. But the few families who had been hoodwinked into joining the earlier invasion into the titled property and have nowhere to go simply pitched camp along the sides of Dacudao Avenue. Their frail-looking lean-to dwellings of salvaged pieces of wood, plastic sheets and occasional pieces of galvanized iron and cardboard are inadequate protection against the elements, especially in these cold, rainy "-ber" months.
As always in such situations, it is the children more than the adults who are more apt to fall sick. One wonders where these remnants of the once large squatter colony get their water for drinking/cooking/washing. There are no toilets, so where do they do their "thing"? Will these wretched people spend their Christmas season "as is, where is"?
If nothing else, perhaps City Hall can temporarily accommodate these victims of professional squatters at the Almendras gym until they can finally be relocated. These poorest of the poor deserve compassion, but where are the self-styled do-gooders, the bleeding hearts? Huh, probably dreaming of a white Christmas in their home sweet homes.
Along Dacudao Avenue, there is a man-made disaster in the making. Will the poor children there be singing their favorite ballad as in Christmases past?..."Kasadya ning takna-a...dapit sa kahimaya-an...ma-o ray among nakita..." Does anybody care?
(November 8, 2004 issue)
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