Tag: urban poor

Life on the tracks of Filipino rail taxi ‘driver’ featured in Australian TV feature!

November 6, 2014 benign0 5 Comments

Amidst the horrors of Metro Manila’s infamous perma-traffic can be found interesting stories of how ordinary Filipinos cope with the mess left by decades of administrative neglect. Australia’s SBS world documentary program Dateline featured the heartwarming story of Genaro Daclison, a Filipino father of two who made his living pushing a rail trolley on foot…

Civics, Development, Glitz and Glamour

Were the ‘victims’ of the San Roque, Agham demolition legal residents or just a bunch of squatters?

January 28, 2014 benign0 15 Comments

Nowhere in the incident reports issued by commie publication Bulatlat did information surrounding the legality of the demolition victims’ residency in the area come up. The only piece of information remotely pertaining to some semblance of legal argument in the report was around a “notice of demolition” that supposedly expired several months ago. According to…

Civics, Development, Government, Lifestyle, Society

Si Richard…

August 28, 2013August 28, 2013 Ms. Mike Portes 8 Comments

Hindi ko dapat i-po-post ito pero mabigat nang dalhin. Eto po si Richard, nakilala ko siya sa Million People March sa Luneta. Tubong Cebu pero napadpad sa Maynila para maghanap ng trabaho. Dahil wala siyang mapasukang trabaho, siya ay nagtitinda ng kahit anong pwedeng itinda para maitawid ang kanyang mga araw araw na pangangailangan. Sa araw…

A sustainable solution to the squatter problem in the Philippines

July 16, 2013December 28, 2013 Ilda 48 Comments

Judging from the reaction of the readers to previous articles on squatters in the Philippines, there are definitely more decent Filipinos who are fed up with squatters who bite the hand that feed them compared to the number of readers who defended some of the squatters’ parasitic tendencies. After my suggestion that illegal settlers should…

Development, Society

Walls to hide poor from ADB are temporary, but walls that ring the enclaves of the Philippine elite are permanent

May 4, 2012 benign0 39 Comments

Most Filipinos are Third Class citizens in their own country. Consider this: Makati City and its prosperous cousins, Ortigas, Alabang, Greenhills, Fort Bonifacio, and Rockwell among others are world-class reality suspensions. If only we could put all of them in an island and make like another Singapore with the rest of the country treated as…

Culture, Development, Government, Lifestyle, Society