A SIGHT MOST DEPRESSING

At least twice each week, in Quezon City, I pass by the government offices along BIR Road and cross Quezon Boulevard to Agham Road. These are the streets of my youth, the streets I know really well when I was in High School. But that was thirty years ago, and here we are, thousands of informal settlers later.

Allow me to discuss how I feel about the situation of what once was the primary government center of our country.

The rows and rows of shanties are a heart rending sight. I try to be very careful when I drive by these settlements; little children would suddenly dart from the sidewalk, running after each other unmindful of the dangers presented by speeding vehicles. On weekends most specially, I am more deliberate since half of these streets would be teeming with a medley of pedestrians, pedicabs and pushcarts.

The miserable condition our fellow Filipinos are in illustrates what is wrong with the present government.

First, some of the shanties are just across the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the primary revenue gatherer of the government. Here is an office in charge of revenue collection, handling billions and billions of funds and there across its portals lie the poorest of the poor.

Second, situated in Agham road is the Office of the Ombudsman. Clearly, somebody in government goofed and that is why poverty is prevalent in our country. Yet, we cannot seem to pinpoint accountability for this situation and the Office of the Ombudsman, watchdog of the government, should share part of the blame for this.

Third, the Quezon City Hall is about two blocks away. It is the richest local government unit in the Philippines. Surely, even with one percent of its P8.6 Billion budget, it could jumpstart the relocation of these settlers to more humane surroundings? Surely with its Billions, it should have provided for resettlement areas to these settlers.

Fourth, regarding the proliferation of these settlement clusters in the government lots. Years and years of apathy and neglect caused this problem to balloon. It definitely started with just one temporary dwelling, then two, then a dozen then a dozen dozens until it became what it is now, a massive housing, peace and order, health and hygiene problem.

Of course the Sangguniang Barangay knew; of course the City government knew. These local governments could have nipped the problem in the bud but they didn't. The PNP could have prevented the erection of structures but it didn't. Yes, they patrol these roads everyday and surely have seen the structures being erected, but no, they did not lift a finger to resolve the predicament.

And so the saga continues. I have this nasty feeling that the number of settlers would increase in these financially-strapped times. Does anyone in government still care?