Pet Melliza

After tearing down kiosks on roadsides (yes, not on the road but on the side of the road) and even the walls, gates and front portions of concrete homes already beyond the road shoulder, Task Force Atni-Illegal Structures or Task Force Asis, convened an assembly of residents at La Granja, La Paz, Iloilo City, for "consultation". Its head explained that what they did was mere "clearing" of obstructions considered "nuisance per se" and that, as "mere soldiers", they only followed orders "from above" who to date remain anonymous. Task Force Asis is a creature of the Iloilo City government. The La Granja road which leads to the Ticud Bridge is a "national road", which means, TyFoon Asis has no business being there at all. Whoever sent the storm troopers of TyFoon Asis has made a short cut -- only a court order can eject or remove structures squatting on somebody else's property. What TyFoon Asis only did was...

March 24, 2014 Iloilo City With a mere “notice” sent them by TF Asis of Iloilo City Hall, residents have little time to prepare when the task force demolition team backed u by the police, swoop on them days after. For most of them, their roadside stores, repair shops, vulcanizing, coffee shop, fish stands, etc. are their sole means of survival. (Photo by Limuel Celebria) “Livelihood” was an esoteric term in the early ‘80s when the Marcos regime introduced the KKK or Kilusang Kabuhayan at Kaunlaran, a multi-billion peso venture in soft-loans to entrepreneurs nationwide. Livelihood was manna from heaven and promised to turn the place where it fell into paradise. KKK did not benefit the poor comprising peasants, workers, unemployed and the landless. The manna landed on the lap middle class and government functionaries, especially, military officers who availed of up to P50,000 per person. At that time when the worker’s monthly income ranged from P700 to P1,000, the loan pa...