Police, mily, residents foil Kadamay plan to occupy Bustos housing proj.

From the Philippine News Agency (Mar 25): Police, mily, residents foil Kadamay plan to occupy Bustos housing proj.

Police and Army personnel, together with some residents, thwarted some 750 members of the urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay), who tried to occupy vacant housing units in Bulacan Heights, a National Housing Authority project in Barangay Bonga Mayor here Friday night.

Bulacan Police director, Sr. Supt. Romeo Caramat Jr., said Saturday the Kadamay members arrived on board 39 passenger jeepneys at about 8:30 p.m. Friday and tried to enter the Bulacan Heights housing project but were blocked by a phalanx of policemen, soldiers and residents who barricaded the gates with two firetrucks and some heavy equipment.

He said local policemen, backed up by maneuver platoons from the Public Safety Company of the Bulacan Police, were supported by Army troopers of the 48th Infantry Battalion under the command of Col. Ramil Anoyo.

Most of the residents of Bulacan Heights are policemen and military personnel, Caramat said.

Chief Insp. Victor Bernabe, Bustos Police chief, said a peaceful dialogue ensued, resulting in the dispersal of the Kadamay members, some of whom even asked for transportation to ferry them back to the occupied housing sites in Pandi town.

The municipal government provided trucks that brought them to Pandi.

Bernabe said some Kadamay members warned that they will be back in full force and will occupy idle housing units, claiming that they have rights to government housing projects.
A village official who declined to be identified meanwhile said the government should investigate the series of "invasion" of government housing units because it is becoming a vicious trend.

"Somebody is manipulating this group. They just can’t go around invading government housing units,” the village official said.

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