Tuesday Morning July 11

The news from our friends at the Vincentian Missionaries office this morning was that rescue workers had retrieved at least 60 bodies from the site of a tragic landslide at the mountainous garbage dump outside Manila - a majority of them are children - and about 150 people are still missing under the garbage. 

Everybody at Payatas is working quickly to dig out any survivors and provide medical help and shelter to those who have lost their houses. The slide took place close to the Savings Office of the Scavengers Association part of the Philippines Homeless People’s Federation who have become close friends of ACHR and Slum Dwellers International.

The Payatas community surrounds the mountainous garbage dump outside Manila, The landslide apparently caused by recent heavy rains crushed and buried over a hundred shacks belonging to scavenger families. It had been raining all night, and these houses were clustered at the bottom of a particularly precarious, steep section of the cliff-like hill of garbage at the centre of Payatas. Immediately after the slide, a huge fire broke out and continues to burn there, hampering rescue efforts. Because of limited space, fire trucks could not reach the area.

The huge Payatas garbage dump was planned to be an "open pit" landfill, years ago, but as the pit filled up, garbage continued to be dumped there and gradually it became a mountain - an increasingly dangerous mountain. It continues to be Manila's main garbage dump, and the chief source of livelihood for one of the largest and poorest informal settlements in the Philippines. Father Joel is helping coordinate the rescue efforts in Payatas while Father Norberto is away in Europe.


From Tragedy to Strategy

as of July 24 (third week)

Words of sympathy and solidarity keep on coming, supply of goods pouring, financial and technical offers flowing, potential partners showing up, local volunteers get going. It must have the miraculous intervention of the hundred of Payatas martyrs, specially innocent children, which brings about such considerable changes and movements. While old-schooled urban poor organizations also resurrect and continue to make their own showcase, the challenge has always been to take alternatives that would benefit most the disadvantaged.