March 8, the International Women's Day, Filipinos women and KADAMAY led a large contingent of those living in relocation sites/resettlement areas in Bulacan, to occupy about 5,280 vacant houses. The government has not responded kindly to the mass action.They have set up food blockades, harassment is non-stop, against urban poor Filipinos. On March 10, the government gave Kadamay and the thousands of urban poor Filipinos an ultimatum to vacate the premises within 7 days or they will evict all with extreme force.
As a response about 20,000 people have so far occupied about 6,000 houses.
The IAI stand up in solidarity and call for support Kadamay and the people for Zero Evictions Bulacan!
We call our friends of the international community in publicly supporting this historical occupation. Thousands of lives and homes are at stake.
To stop the evictions in Bulacan, Philippines, we call upon international solidarity which is why we are asking everyone:
- to sign the Call to Action
- send letters of protest directly to the Embassies of Philippines in your country.
Please find: Directory of Philippines Embassies worldwide
You can use the Call to Action as sample.
Important: send your message + photo so they can be published by nicolas@habitants.org
To mark the International Women’s Day, Kadamay launched the #OccupyBulacan
campaign on March 8, 2017. Almost 5,000 members participated and successfully occupied around 6,000 idle housing in five relocation sites on the first day.
To date, about 20,000 members continue to sustain the campaign now covering Padre Pio de Pande resettlement, Pandi Heights BJMP Housing, Villa Luis AFP/PNP Housing, Pandi Residence 3, and Pandi Village 2.
KADAMAY, a national alliance of urban poor Filipinos that last March 8 led a successful campaign to occupy thousands of idle homes in resettlement sites, with the support of IAI ha sent an urgent Appel to Leilani Fahra, the UN Special Rapporteur for the Right ton Housing, to take action in order to address the demands and concerns of the homeless and urban poor. There is an air of urgency as the eviction is imminent and the occupation itself is the largest organized occupation by poor Filipinos in recent history.