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:

President of the Philippines

Rodrigo Roa Duterte

The Presidential Action Center

 pace_op@malacanang.gov.ph

National Housing Authority

General Manager

Marcelino Escalada jr.

790-0800 local 300, 922-2460. 922-2987/922-2058 (telefax)

 Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council

Cabinet secretary

Leoncio Evasco

secretariat@cabsec.gov.ph

Philippines National Police

Directorate for Operations

srd.do@pnp.gov.ph

cc:

Liza Maza

Secretary of the National Anti-Poverty Commission

lizamaza.napc@gmail.com

Vince Eugenio

Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor

vfeugenio@yahoo.com

Leilani Fahra

United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing

OHCHR, Palais des Nations (PW 4-010)

1211 Geneva, Switzerland

unhousing@gmail.com

Solidarity for Zero Evictions in Bulacan and for new policies for the right to housing throughout the Philippines

We wish to express our deep concern because the upcoming forced evictions of  around 20.000 poor people occupants of around 6,000 idle homes in Bulacan, Metro Manila, organized by KADAMAY, a national alliance representing the urban poor in the Philippines.

The occupation, began on March 8^th , the International Women’s Day, highlights the humanitarian and housing crisis faced by the homeless in the country, which is a result of the failure of the National Housing Authority and the national Government to heed the demands for housing rights made by the poor.

This crisis was also recognized by the 65^th  and 66^th  meetings of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights that, on 7/10/2016, expressed concern over the violations of Article 11 of ICESCR, ratified on 7/06/1974 by the Philippines, making it a legal obligation. This is particularly important, given that the Urban Development and Housing Act “legalizes” forced evictions and demolitions, and a large number of forced evictions are carried out in the name of urban development.

In spite of the urgent recommendations made by the UN Committee, and the discussions with housing agencies concerning the state of relocation sites, the demands fell on deaf ears, even at the Presidential Palace.

For these reasons, we stand in solidarity with the people threatened by eviction and we fully support the demands made by their organization, urging your Government to respect legal obligations:

• Pull out military and police forces from the occupied relocation sites.
• Order a moratorium on the evictions.
• Provide food, water and other basic services to all relocation sites, including the five relocation sites.
• Engage in full and respectful dialogue with KADAMAY, who are willing to work on this process to identify a mutually acceptable solution in order to recognize the legitimacy to occupy the housing units and freely distribute them to members.
• Distribute all idle housing units in PNP/AFP/BJMP/BFP resettlement sites to homeless citizens.
• Increase the public funding allocated to social housing to provide affordable social housing units for all homeless, disadvantaged and marginalized individuals and families.

We look forward to your reply.

Sincerely.

Signatories (46)

• SK SU, Student Squatting Assistance Hour - Netherlands
• Yuri Lucidi , - Spain
• Begoña Oliva, Pacheco - Spain
• Prashant Anthony, People's Responsible Organisation of United Dharavi(PROUD) - India
• Antonio Martínez, - Spain
• Luz Elena viñolo, deudores autoconvocados - Argentina
• Mirjana Jandik, - Ecuador
• Pichette Yvon, - Canada
• Silvia Naches, - Spain
• TRAORE SEYDOU, MOUVEMENT DE SOLIDARITE POUR LE DROIT AU LOGEMENT (MSPDROL) BURKINA FASO - Burkina Faso
• cristina reynals, Fe.De.Vi. - Argentina
• Unai Uriarte López, LAB - Spain
• Hoare Michael, Copaf - Collectif pour l'avenir des foyers - France
• Roberto Perin, - Italy
• Oscar Revilla, - Spain
• Fakhrul Ferdous Ferdous, Development Center International(DCI) - Bangladesh
• Annalisa Melandri, - Italy
• Edwin Moya, Personal - Honduras
• Joan Peralta, - Spain
• matteo viola, - Brazil
• L B, - Italy
• Dehout Geneviève, - Belgium
• Belcour cyprien, Association Tlaxnaiwalhac - France
• Mª Mercedes Esquinas, - Spain
• Ángeles Zorzo, - Spain
• benmaghsoula amine, particulier - Belgium
• Luis Miguel Castro Sanz, - Spain
• Raúl García-Durán, Ateneu de Palafrugell - Spain
• Ben Slama Soha, Alliance Internationale des Habitants coordination Tunisie / ATHLD - Tunisia
• Kubes Kubes, - Belgium
• Manuel de la Rosa Rivas, CONABASTO - Mexico
• Sandra Quintela, Instituto Pacs/ Red Jubileo Sur - Brazil
• Matias Volonterio, UNAM - Mexico
• Dave Rendle, - United Kingdom
• Associazione per la Pace di Pordenone, - Italy
• Raja Khanfir, - Tunisia
• amerigo bigagli, - Italy
• Shelly Browning, Friends of Public Banking - United States
• domenico russo, - Italy
• pietro angiolillo, - Italy
• silvana gianoglio, - Italy
• roberta cerruti, - Italy
• Elizabeth Santos, Red Metropolitana de Inquilinos - Venezuela
• Aknak Khan Nacéra, Culture XXI - France
• ALESSANDRA LOMBARDI, - Italy
• Mauro Zuccari, - Italy