Sitio San Roque residents’ resistance to their community’s planned demolition has spanned decades with no conclusion in sight, yet their demands for empowerment through inclusive development endure.

FOR THE past 13 years, the informal settlement of Sitio San Roque in Quezon City has been under threat of displacement. Facing the constant intimidation of demolitions, the community is caught in land issues induced by the development plans from a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) between the National Housing Authority (NHA) and real estate firm Ayala Land, Inc.

As a result, the settlement is now surrounded by towering, modern infrastructure like Ayala Malls Vertis North and the surrounding condominiums. Juxtaposed with such grand shopping centers, the community’s urban poor housing stands as a testament to the stark contrast of wealth within the constantly modernizing metro.

An organization that has been helping Sitio San Roque is Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay), with its local branch headed by Chairwoman Ka Inday, one of the settlement’s oldest residents. As a prominent figure of the community, she uses her voice to counter the anti-poor development and advocate for their own alternative.

There used to be a house

Making space for infrastructure in the metropolis is often at the cost of the people living in the margins.

During the earliest demolitions, Ka Inday was offered Php 1 million to let the other residents of Sitio San Roque fend for themselves. “Kapwa ko silang mahihirap na nanghihingi din ng bahay. Bigyan ninyo kami [ng pabahay] kasi hindi naman kami lumaban para pumatay o manakit,” she counters, enraged by the offer.

(They are my fellow poor who want homes too. Provide us housing because we are not fighting to kill or hurt.)

Despite the residents’ initial protests, NHA and Ayala Land proceeded with the initial demolitions in 2010, destroying 600 houses and resulting in injuries and deaths among the residents. Ka Inday recalls how horrific it was to witness homes bulldozed with people’s dead bodies still inside.

According to Ka Inday, the community also experienced a series of intentional fires that severely razed and damaged homes. External efforts to displace them became more aggressive, yet the residents continued to resist.

At the height of the demolition process, Ka Inday directly addressed government leaders, calling them out for their inaction toward the troubles of the masses. Their expressions of dissent eventually resulted in a temporary cessation of demolition.

Nevertheless, some of the residents have chosen to tear down their own homes through self-demolition, giving into NHA-provided incentives of payouts and promised relocations.

The locations offered by the NHA, however, often lack basic resources such as running water, electricity, and work opportunities. These places sometimes undergo demolitions later on, forcing those who moved there to relocate again.

Moreover, such relocations uproot them from the identities and communities they have established through time. For informal settlers, exclusion is a never-ending cycle.

Built of tin roofing

Today, minor Ayala Land construction projects still displace families as nearby residential and commercial buildings expand into the settlement’s current space. Ka Inday often helps residents negotiate with the company, who offers cash before anything else. However, she always retorts that residents would prefer another house over a check.

As an alternative, the residents worked together to design a Community Development Plan (CDP) for developments in Sitio San Roque. The main objective of the CDP is to promote community-led housing.

The project features two five-floor medium-rise residential buildings with housing units for every family in the project. Members of Kadamay often initiate discussions of the CDP with local government leaders, but these figureheads often overlook their appeals.

Disillusioned by the long wait, some Sitio San Roque residents return to their original provinces or concede to relocate. Unfortunately, any change or hope for the CDP to be materialized currently meant patience and self-reliance.

Now just rust and dirt

Although extreme attempts to disperse their demonstrations have eased for now, Ka Inday knows that the NHA and Ayala Land are growing impatient to obliterate the settlement. Such sentiments emphasize the sidelining of the communities’ concerns, undermining their right to the city.

“Kailangan isama niyo kami sa pag-unlad. ‘Wag niyo kami tanggalan dito ng karapatan kasi [nandito] na kami. […] Kailangan ba naming maubos [para sa kaunlaran]?” she asks.

(We need to be included in the development you want. Do not remove our rights by displacing us from our homes. Do we need to disappear for development?)

Currently, no one answers Ka Inday and her community outside the static of postponed solutions or horrors. Despite all this, they persist in demanding inclusive cities by forwarding their own vision of development—one where they can change the cityscape through having a collective and active role in its constant formation, reformation, and transformation.

The voices of Sitio San Roque’s residents are loud and clear. If they are not acknowledged and heard, all that will be left is the silence of flattened homes and forgotten people.