Over the next few years, the construction of a Central Business District (QCCBD) is set to begin in Quezon City, threatening to displace over 15,000 families from various areas in the North and East Triangles where the ambitious building program is expected to start soon. Despite the blessings of the national housing agency and the city government, the planned demolition of an entire community in fact runs counter to campaign promises made by then presidential candidate Benigno Aquino III, according to organizations supportive of the communities affected by the QCCBD.
"May pag-unlad daw na magaganap dito sa lugar, pero hindi naman kami kasama," said Jocy Lopez, the president of the North Triangle chapter of Anakpawis, a grassroots partylist group. (They say development is coming to this place, but we’re not included.) Prior to the May 2010 elections, urban poor groups said, Aquino signed a “covenant with the poor," in which he vowed: “We will not allow any public or private authority to evict families and leave them homeless in the street. The government must provide decent relocation, near-city or in-city, if possible, quality housing, adequate basic services and jobs." Aquino added, “We will not tolerate a situation where wage earners have to stay in the city to work while the other members of the family stay in distant relocation centers… We will not institutionalize such situations by building sites in the city where they will live apart from their families. As the work force in the cities, the poor, up to the extent possible, should be given the opportunity to stay in the cities." The National Housing Authority (NHA) estimates that the residents facing demolition will amount to over 9,500 households in Barangay Pag-asa; over 2,600 households from Barangay Central; over 2,200 households from Barangay Pinyahan; and around 500 households from Project 6.
A 2009 NHA census of the families living in Sitio San Roque I and II, a 30-hectare community within Barangay Pag-asa, showed that over 50 percent of the wage-earners there earn a living within Metro Manila. Many of these families are “illegal settlers" on NHA land, according to the agency. The QCCBD, a P22-billion joint venture between the NHA and Ayala Land Inc., is part of a development plan to turn Quezon City into a “world class Asian city," the NHA said in a project brief. The land currently occupied by the Veterans Memorial Medical Center and the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife are also part of the QCCBD, and slated for development, although the possible relocation of the VMMC and the park is “not a priority at the moment," said an NHA official. The project was initiated during the terms of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, now a member of the Lower House representing Pampanga’s second district, and former QC Mayor Feliciano Belmonte, now a QC congressman and House Speaker as well. Arroyo’s Executive Order 620, issued in 2007, pushed for “the development of [the North and East Triangles] into a highly integrated transportation, environment, commercial and residential model," creating “an urban development model [for] hubs of intense economic growth." Under Belmonte, the QC government bared plans to extensively develop the North and East Triangle, comprising 250 hectares, into a commercial district. Recent events, however, have generated controversy concerning the QCCBD. Last September 23, a large-scale demolition began in San Roque, to make way for the QCCBD. After a seven-hour standoff between the NHA demolition team, members of the Philippine National Police, and residents resisting relocation, the demolitions ended for the day. At least 14 were injured and traffic was snarled in EDSA for hours. The next day, on September 24, President Aquino himself ordered a halt to the forced eviction of San Roque residents, telling the NHA to suspend the demolitions until they could “provide a comprehensive plan that will ensure orderliness in the implementation of relocation activities."—JV,
