Online Center for Philippine Public Sector Workers
QC residents, gov’t employees march vs proposed biz district
Submitted by pubinfodepartment on Mon, 10/27/2008 - 09:13.
Hundreds of residents from different barangays (villages) in Quezon City march to the Quezon City hall today to protest the proposed 250-hectare central business district project by the Belmonte and Macapagal-Arroyo governments. Joining them are employees from different government agencies that will be affected too, by the said multibillion project. Santiago Dasmariñas Jr., spokesperson of the multisectoral alliance, Concerned Organizations against Transfer, Layoff, Demolition and Privatization for the Quezon City Central Business District (QC-CBD) said that 122,000 residents will be driven away from their homes, while thousands of government employees will be laid off from work due to massive privatization and transfers of government offices along the Elliptical Road, East and North Triangle areas. The Department of Agriculture will soon be having its national office in Ilagan City, Isabela in January 2009 while the Department of Social Welfare and Development is hurrying up the construction of new buildings and facilities in the two-hectare donated lot in Tanay, Rizal to be the new home for Golden Acres Home for the Aged, Dasmariñas said. "These are indications that this project is indeed on its way and that the idea of development, for Mayor (Sonny) Belmonte and Mrs. (Gloria) Arroyo is privatizing government service, taking away the rights of the poor for an abode, and giving lee way for the private corporations to rake more profits from the QC-CBD," he said. Included for demolition are the entire urban poor community in North Triangle, some portion of Barangay Palanas, San Isidro, San Roque, Brgy. Central, and Veterans Memorial areas while for privatization and transfers are the main offices of the National Food Authority, Sugar Regulatory Administration, Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), National Irrigation Administration, National Printing Office, National Power Corporation, Office of the Ombudsman, Land Transport Franchising and Regulatory Board, Land Transportation Office, Bureau of Internal Revenue-Main, Mines and Geosciences Bureau-DENR, Department of Agrarian Reform, and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas QC Office. Even government hospitals will be privatized too as an addendum to the "amenities" provided for foreign and local patrons targeted for business, residency, and leisure inside the QC-CBD. "They will clumped up the National Kidney and Transplant Institute, the Philippine Heart Center and Philippine Lung Center, aiming to create the Philippine Center for Specialized Health Care—a haven for medical tourism," Dasmariñas added. "As you can see, all of these are for profits, perks for the government officials, and privatization of government services. This project, in reality, is anti-poor, anti-government employees, and anti-Filipino as a whole." (Press Release, October 27, 2008)