The San Juan demolition

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

The photographs and footages on the confrontation between informal settlers, or squatters, and local officials and the police in San Juan, Metro Manila on Wednesday presented graphic scenes of the inevitable outcome of any legal attempt to free a public or privately owned property that had been occupied by those who have no right to it.

The scenes taken by print reporters and TV cameramen showed the residents who were subject of the demolition order fighting against the officers of the law by throwing rocks, empty bottles, and even Molotov bombs that caused injuries to both the resisting residents and the police and fire officers.

Even the use of firectrucks and bulldozers could not stop the bellicose people who apparently did not care that their faces were being recorded on cameras and could lead to their prosecution and conviction later. For them, protecting their homes, even if they were standing on land that belongs to others, was the main motivation, and, as one of them was quoted as saying, they were ready to die for it.

Government authorities eventually had to resort to the use of tear gas and water cannons on the crowds. Many were injured, most of them policemen, who unlike the informal settlers, had orders to maintain “maximum tolerance” and could therefore, only defend themselves.

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One would sympathize with the protesting presidents if it were not known that offers had already been made for them to be relocated earlier. Reports say that some 400 families had taken advantage of the offer, but those who would not budge had probably convinced themselves that digging in would enable them to hold on to their illegal structures.

This is one reason for local government units, and for landowners as well, to ensure that informal settlers are stopped from occupying their property as soon as they crop up. This is the only way to prevent unreasonable resistance, injury, and even bloodshed, when such persons get a foothold and later refuse to yield to the real owners despite knowing that the law would be against them when the day of reckoning comes.*