Community leaders in the Old Balara area of Quezon yesterday went to the office of vice president Jejomar Binay to urge the government to investigate the demolition of homes in the area last month.

In a letter delivered to the office of Binay, who also serves as chairman of the housing and urban development coordinating council, community leaders laid out a series of grievances.

The Quezon City regional court did not give residents the prescribed 30-day notice of demolition, nor were residents offered a suitable resettlement site, the letter stated.

Under the law, the community leaders said, the national housing authority (NHA) is required to provide for resettlement of people evicted from public land.

In practice, however, the NHA merely encourages private property owners and local officials to help with resettlement expenses.

Hundreds formed a barricade to block authorities from dismantling the homes of more than 700 families on August 31.

Old Balara is among several areas being monitored by the Urban Poor Associates (UPA), a coalition of groups co-funded by Misereor of Germany and other Church agencies working for housing for the poor.

People have been living in a makeshift house built under a footbridge outside of Old Balara and have been given a deadline of September 30 to abandon their home.

Former Quezon City parish priest Father Robert Reyes said that whatever the law states, the government has a moral responsibility to look after the welfare of its people.

“The government must find win-win solutions that will uphold the interest and rights of the poor, and allow the necessary infrastructure of the city to be built.”

Some 7,060 families have lost their homes in 14 demolition actions between January and August of this year, all of which did not meet the legal requirements for eviction, according to a recent study by the UPA.

The study further estimated that about 300,000 more families face the threat of forced eviction in Metro Manila alone.