MY DRIVER Joel has been with me for almost a year now and has been telling me of his dream of having his own little house to own to raise his small family. He lives in a village in Mambuaya allocated for typhoon Sendong victims.
The village is dilapidated, with no proper drainage and no water. The Catholic Church built this village from a donated land right after Typhoon Sendong. They then released it to an association to manage. The location is beautiful with sweet cool breeze of air and plenty of vegetation. It has a spring where residents gather water for their daily needs. They buy bottled water for drinking.
The road going to the village from the highway is cemented. The problem is that the association has mismanaged the place. Many houses have been abandoned and the club house is unfinished and trash is all over the place.
The Catholic Church understandably handed the management of the village to a housing association because in the first place what do they know about housing management.
It is also not their job to provide housing to the poor. It is supposed to be the job of the government.
It is already sad that the village is dilapidated with no water and proper drainage but what is sadder is that the association has been harassing the residents with eviction. My driver has been told that he will be evicted because he has done improvement to his house.
He used to drive a taxi and he has improved the house a little bit from his earnings so that it will be a decent place to live. Now he has been threatened with eviction because of what he did.
He used to have the donation documents which the Catholic Church gave to him but the documents have been ‘borrowed’ by the association. When he demanded for the papers the association refused to give them back.
I told my driver not to leave the house unless they pay him for the cost of his improvement. He is dying to get out of that place to move somewhere decent. But the problem is where will he go?
Private houses and lots in Cagayan de Oro are not affordable for poor people like my driver. If only I have millions I would buy the lot in front of my house and build him a decent house.
Why housing for the poor is is unaffordable in our city? Simple reason. The government has ignored them since time immemorial. All housing developments in the city are private projects and they cost millions. How could an ordinary poor driver afford that.
There are housing projects for the poor all over the city but these were initiated mostly by private charitable groups like the Catholic Church. EcoVille village in Lumbia is familiar to me because most of my football players in my Lumbia Raptors Football Club live there. The village is an outreach project of the Jesuits run Xavier University.
The government should do their part. It is supposed to be their job to provide housing to the people especially to the poor. We would not have the problem of squatters if they have done their job.
I lived in the United Kingdom for almost 15 years. When my son visited me when he was only six years old, he asked me why there are no poor people walking around and why the place is so clean. He then asked why there are no small dilapidated houses in any street corners.
My answer was simple. “Son, the UK government takes care of their poor. They provide them with health care, education and most specially housing.’’
There are also poor people in the UK. The only difference is that their government cares. Here? What do you think?
In Cagayan de Oro City, the City Housing and Urban Development Department (CHUDD) disclosed during the 2nd Housing Summit recently that the informal settlers have risen from 34,898 in 2013 to 51,437 as of today.
Informal settlers (posh word for squatters) is still a big problem in the city. You can find them anywhere. My driver’s mother-in-law still lives under the bridge in Gusa. Her old house and her neighbors houses were swept by the flood from Typhoon Sendong in 2011. Now, they have rebuilt their houses from the same spot. Has the CdO government done something for them?
If they continue to live on the same spot since Sendong, it only means one thing. They have been ignored.
Yes it is expensive to build houses for the poor. But there is always government money allotted to solve this problem. However, money is not spent well and does not ever reach to the projects. They end up in someone’s pocket.
President Duterte recently fired Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council Secretary-General Falconi Millar over corruption allegations. Apparently that is where the government money for housing goes, to someone’s pockets.
l.biantan@gmail.com