Within WMF, grassroots organizations exist to safeguard the interest of the community. In 2002, SAMAKAPA was founded as a HOA and was given authority to administer water supply to households. Closely allied with the Pasig LGU and Mayor Roberto Eusebio, it recommended relocation of WMF residents specifically to BLISS, a medium-rise building (MRB) located within the barangay. (Insert footnote on financing scheme) Not all are in favor of this suggestion. In March 2009, the Samahan ng Kababaihan sa Floodway, Maybunga (SNKF) a women’s group organizing the community since 1998, which was instrumental in the formation of SAMAKAPA, helped create a breakaway group called The West Bank Floodway Neighborhood Association, Inc. (WFMNAI) after a 2007 legal dispute over alleged corruption in the administration of the water system. WFMNAI, which is affiliated with the non-government organization Community Organizers Multiversity (COM) advocates on-site development in WFM.
Also active in WMF are the volunteers of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (CIDSS) who, aside from implementing the LGU's Lusog Pasig nutrition program, also roll out the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), a national social development and poverty reduction strategy that provides cash grants to poor households to improve their health, nutrition, and education provided they comply with certain conditions. Other visible groups include the Pasig Security Guards (PSG), a volunteer group of men and women who patrol the vicinity at night to prevent crimes, the Barangay Health Workers (BHWs) and the Pasig Health Aides (PHA) who supervise them.
Most volunteers of CIDSS, PSG, the PHAs and BHWs are members of either SAMAKAPA or WFNAI.
The flooding brought about by Ondoy seems to have deepened the dividing lines between the two major POs in WFM. On the one hand, WFMNAI and its supporters blame SAMAKAPA for convincing affected families to relocate to the NHA site in Calauan, Laguna transplanting these households who would have strengthened their fight for on-site development into a community allegedly less favorable to their well-being. On the other hand, SAMAKAPA and its followers emphasize that to relocate would be the best and safest choice even if it meant some difficulties in adjusting to their new life outside the city. While the SAMAKAPA stands on its decision of recommending relocation, WFMNAI continues to lobby with national government agencies to stop impending forced evictions in WFM.
In all these, the barangay appears to remain in the middle—wary of the supposed environmental hazard that faces the remaining residents but, at the same time, understanding their refusal to transfer to an area with very limited basic services and virtually no opportunities for livelihood.
...
What? I have deadlines. I wrote this today...and it's crying out for edits!
No comments:
Post a Comment