This is another fire in Quezon City, a suburb of Manila. Quezon City was listed in 2008 as the richest city in the Philippines. It launched a massive infrastructure program including business parks, IT & call centers, upscale shopping malls, & other projects designed to attract investment. The development program requires urban land grabs for purposes of gentrification & that means evicting thousands of slum dwellers & making them homeless.
Residents have not gone away obediently or without protest; there have been repeated street battles between residents & riot cops armed with tear gas, water cannons, & bulldozers. Legal battles go back years with appeals by residents to the Commission on Human Rights, to the Manila Development Authority (which sends the demolition squads), & to the Quezon City Council to declare moratoriums on evictions until there are enough relocation sites. “Relocation sites” does not mean public housing but empty lots where residents can move.
Developers may have decided arson is the better part of plunder & simply torch the shanty homes to avoid resistance. There is a pattern to these slum fires in several countries: fire trucks are delayed in getting to the scene; fire inspectors can’t determine the cause of the conflagrations; many residents give cogent testimony supporting their suspicions the fires were arson.
There have been hundred of fatalities in these fires, including small children, the elderly, & the disabled still at home while others worked. Every fire leaves thousands homeless. In this fire, 200 families are now living on the streets. Here residents are sifting through the ashes for their belongings.
(Photo by Aaron Favila/AP)
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