No money for problem of rising squatters population

For almost four centuries, Intramuros was the seat of Spanish colonial rule in the East and was the center of commerce, education, government and religion. Its decline, however, as the center of Manila resulted from World War II. The historic streets, buildings and palatial homes in Intramuros lost its old grandeur and glory—when they were razed to the ground.

From the years after the war, the growing population of mainly informal settlers inside Intramuros became a big concern.

Pollution built up, traffic plagued the streets, cars, public or private, parked everywhere. Weeds and other growth filled the cracks in the walls, leading to more deterioration.

The solution to this, according to Jose Capistrano, newly appointed administrator of the Intramuros Administration (ia) is to do urban development projects.

“We come out now for urban development because the previous [urban development] project of the commission is 20 years ago,” said Capistrano, but for important reason the administrator decided not to divulge the whole plan of the IA to The Manila Times.

“I don’t want that to come out to the public because part of my plan is really to address that problem of informal settlers. But if I divulge my plan maybe there is some movement that will make the implementation of the plan more difficult,” he added.

Informal settlers

The Intramuros Administration failed to control the increase of the population of informal settlers in the once shining capital in the Orient of the Spanish Empire, which ruled the world.

IA also failed to relocate the settlers. Capistrano when asked why the informal settlers could not be relocated during the previous terms, said, “I don’t know. It was for [the] previous administrators [to decide], perhaps there was no budget, perhaps there was no plan.”

The Times tried but failed to get the side of former Administrator Anna Maria Harper.

For Architect Agusto Rustia, chief of Cultural Properties Conservation Division, the increasing number of informal settlers in many areas of Walled City is the major problem of Intramuros Administration.

“Informal settler is our major concern now,” said Rustia, adding, “They still continuing to grow.”

He said that they are now cooperating with the barangay chairmen in the Walled City about the problem of stopping the increase of these informal settlers.

But a barangay chairman, who requested for anonymity, told The Times that the Intramuros Administration is not coordinating with the barangays. “They [Intramuros Administration] are not cooperating with us.”

“They implemented policies inside Intramuros without informing the barangays, bigla na lang namen malalaman na may ganung policy pala [They implemented policies inside Intramuros without informing the barangays, all of a sudden there are policies like that],” he added.

The barangay chairman, also, admitted that out of 1,000 people who live in his barangay 600 are informal settlers. “The people know their liability, but ang sa amin lang e mabigyan sila ng maayos na malilipatan [We just want the squatters to be given a proper place to move to].”

“We are willing to cooperate with them but the problem is they treat us as enemies,” the barangay chairman said.

If the problem cannot be solved by the IA, the barangay chairman said, “It is better with us if Intramuros is placed under the jurisdiction of the City of Manila as before.”

Intramuros was under the City of Manila until then President Ferdinand Marcos signed and then implemented Presidential Decree 1616 on April 10, 1979 creating an Intramuros Administration to restore it to its ancient glory and administer its development.

Mayor Alfredo Lim of Manila, however, in an interview with The Times, did not give any comment on the issue. Instead he said, “Let’s give the concerned authorities [in the Intramuros] a chance to do their job.”

The mayor, who is a board member of the Intramuros Administration, added that, “Ayaw ko rin masabihan na tinitira ko mga appointee ni Presidente [I also don’t want it said that I am criticizing the appointees of the President].”

Hard to maintain

Rustia also said that the restoration and maintenance of the historic walls is not all that easy, “We do it portion by portion or part by part because handling this kind of structure is very sensitive and we need a big of budget for that.”

For the budget next year, the IA is requesting P529,338,000 for personnel services, maintenance expenses and capital outlay, but the Department of Budget and Management approved only P31,153,000—of which P18,272,000 went to personnel services, P12,881,000 to maintenance and other expenses and no money to capital outlay.

IA’s proposal for capital outlay is P377,928,000 which will fund construction expenses inside the Walled City. The budget department rejected that budget proposal.

Because of there is no fund for building, restoration and solving the squatter problem, Rustia said there are no new structures to build inside Intramuros besides Museo de Intramuros, Maestranza and Ayuntamiento.

IA will focus instead on maintenance and rehabilitation.

In case of emergencies in which reconstruction will be needed in some areas, IA gets funds from the income of the administration, Rustia added.

On the issue of absence of proper parking, Rustia said that a big lot inside Muralla will supply ample space. –JOVEE Marie N. DELA CRUZ REPORTER, Manila Times