ACTION ALERT! July 12, 2000 (Widest possible circulation requested.) From: Bayanihan Alay Sa Sambayan (BALSA, Relief in Service of the People)- A Disaster Relief Campaign of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) DUMPSITE CRASH KILLS 84; 942 REMAIN MISSING - PHILIPPINES On the morning of July 11, just days after floods swamped Metro Manila and huge portions of Luzon, a 50-foot "mountain" of garbage in the Payatas dumpsite collapsed and buried 500 shanties in Quezon City. As of 3:00 pm yesterday, July 11, eighty-four (84) bodies have been recovered from under the stinking pike of garbage that collapsed on their houses. Nine hundred forty-two (942) remain missing, and hopes are diminishing that they would survive, even as rescuers are racing against time to recover them or their bodies. According to KADAMAY, a national urban poor organization and a member of the militant Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU, May First Labor Center), a total of three thousand (3,000) persons eke out a living in Payatas as scavengers, vendors, drivers of pedicab and jeepneys, and other odd jobs in this community ironically named Lupang Pangako (Promised Land). There are five hundred (500) shanties built in this area, the size of four football fields. Currently, the one thousand nine hundred fifty (1,950) survivors of the avalanche have sought temporary refuge in two evacuation centers when the dumpsite collapsed. Seven "purok" of Phase II in Payatas B were badly affected by the collapse of the garbage mountain. Most of the victims and their families are members of SAMAHANG TUNAY (roughly translated as Genuine Organization), a local member-organization of KADAMAY and ANAKBAYAN (a mass organization of youths). Rudy Gino, leader of SANGKAP (Organization of Neighbors in Phase II), another local member-organization of KADAMAY, perished in the avalanche along with his wife. His children are still unaccounted for. Another woman leader of SANGKAP lost her shanty when it was razed to the ground by a power line which went down as the ground gave way. ANAKBAYAN also reported that one of its numerous members there was killed. In addition, a rescuer by the name of Noel, a veteran organizer, was also killed. This sad incident reflects the worsening plight of the urban poor under the Estrada government whose pretensions at being pro-poor have been buried under the weight of its actual negligence of the poor and service to big foreign business interests. Support in the form of relief goods, medicines and monetary donations may be sent to BAYAN's national office at 23 Maamo Street, Sikatuna Village, Quezon City and telephone numbers (63 2) 4359151 and (63 2) 9225211. Checks should be made payable to BAYAN. We hope that with your support, the families of the victims in Payatas B will find the courage and the determination to carry on with their lives and to resolve to organize themselves not only for their rights and welfare; but ultimately, to build a truly democratic and just society where people will no longer scavenge or stay in a filthy place, nor be dirt-poor such as those in Payatas. B A Y A N Bagong Alyansang Makabayan or New Patriotic Alliance, No. 23 Maamo Street, Sikatuna Village, Quezon City, PHILIPPINES. Ph: (63-2) 435-9151; Fax: (63-2) 922-5211; Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Webpage: http://www.bigfoot.com/~bayan-phils Update from Philippines Australia Union Link Over 124 bodies have now been dug out of the collapsed Payatas rubbish tip, and over 900 are still missing. Some of these people and their families are members of the KMU Labor Center federation KADAMAY, an organisation of street vendors and other workers in the informal sector, and some are members of BAYAN, the national democratic organisation of which KMU is a part. This is mainly a request for material help. You can send such help direct to BAYAN by phoning, faxing, or emailing for their bank account details. Or you could send a cheque with a short note to Philippines Australia Union Link, PO Box A671, Sydney South 1235, and I will transfer it to KMU for you. In solidarity Peter Murphy PAUL Secretary Ph 0418 312 301 -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
