Urban poor in Manila

Hundreds of urban poor dwellers from all parts of metropolitan Manila gathered at the entrance of the Bataan Shipyard Corporation Compound (BASECO) during Holy Week to commemorate the yearly rally called "Kalbaryo ng Maralitang Tagalunsod" (Calvary of the Urban Poor).

The group, lead by a huge paper maché puppet symbolizing the Blessed Virgin, followed by a man bearing the cross, moved and prayed at the 14 Stations of the Cross around the compound, in front of small shacks made of burnt-iron sheets, the remains of the huge fire last January. The procession culminated at the newly constructed houses supervised by the
Church-based Couples for Christ organization. Baseco, the Manila City-owned 14-hectare lot by the harbor, has in the past years developed into a community, with about 6,000 urban poor families, who strive to survive as ambulant vendors, construction workers or through any possible opportunity where they can earn money - even to the extent of "donating" their liver for P 10,000 (circa $ 178). Others go into the more lucrative drug business.

Major fire
The first urban poor Calvary rally in 1987 was held
around the city, stopping at several urban poor
communities, and culminated on top of "Smokey
Mountain", the man-made dumpsite which
became the symbol of deterioration and crass poverty
of the country during the Marcos regime. This year,
however, the protest rally was confined inside the
city-owned Baseco compound, the site where 4,000
families (out of the 6,000 families living there)
lost their homes in a fire last January 11, the third
fire within three years.
As an immediate reaction for the homeless families,
the city government gave them shelter inside old
warehouses. However, the officials forgot to supply
the evacuees with the basis needs like water, electricity,
and medicine.
Thus, because of congestion and unsanitary conditions
inside the centers, several children suffer from
chickenpox, measles, diarrhea, skin diseases,
respiratory ailments and dengue, Maggie Baybay of the
Urban Poor Associates said recently.

Volunteers at work
Hundreds of water pails gather at a section of the
community, awaiting the trucks which ration water to
the families. But these trucks do not come regularly,
says an inhabitant. And when the trucks come, the
people are charged P 2 (two pesos) per 20 liters of
water. Ironically, the city government placed two
portable toilets for the community.
"It was the city mayor who asked us to help in the
housing project," says Jun Valbuena of Couples for
Christ. Volunteers come daily to the site either to
cement walls or arrange the pocket gardens in front of
the rows of houses. Likewise some families in the
community help in the construction of the houses, in
the hope that they would acquire one of the 2,500
planned houses. Each house consists of 24 square
meters.

Symbol of poverty
One of the volunteers is 65-year old Monica Sixta, a
mother of six children. "We came to Manila from the
south in 1965 and lived in Tondo (an urban poor
center). Because that land was privately owned, we
had to move out. We have moved several times from one
area to another. And here in Baseco, we are cursed
with fires," she said. "Sooner or later, you =re
hardened by the situation."
It is estimated that 40% of Metro Manila's 8 million
population belong to the urban poor. And this figure
will probably increase in the next years. As Monica
Sixta said, "Because of lack of work in the
countryside, we have no choice but to come to the big
cities."
In the 1980s, "Smokey Mountain" became the
internationally known symbol of poverty in the
Philippines. This symbol today is Baseco.<WM