A LAWMAKER slammed Vice President Leni Robredo for meddling in foreign policy and promoting the “commercial viability” of resettlement sites instead of just attending to the needs of the poor as advocated by President Rodrigo Duterte.
Anakpawis party-list Rep. Ariel Casilao said the chairperson of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council is too busy attending “aid summits” but has yet to act on the plight of more than 800 families that were relocated to the St. Martha Estates in Bocaue, Bulacan.
Aside from Bocaue, Casilao said relocatees in Pandi, also in Bulacan, complained of poor utilities with two children dying last month after drinking contaminated water supplied by a private contractor at St. Martha relocation site.
Members of the St. Martha Relocatees Association blamed the contractors for the incident, Casilao added.
“Instead of acting like a ‘good girl’ in front of big businesses and international agencies, she should face the thousands of relocatees who will be gathering at the NHA next week, and do her homework in resolving their issues, and leave the foreign policy work to the president,” Casilao said.
“Robredo is too PPP-minded who predominantly relies on the private sector, dominated by big businesses for the government housing program. [She] makes it appear like giving social services to the poor is impossible without private investments,” Casilao said.
In fact, Casilao said Robredo is usurping the duties of the National Anti-Poverty Commission, headed by Secretary Liza Maza, which has already prepared poverty intervention programs that will be funded by the government.
“What we expect from Robredo is to face the urban poor, who she stood up, when more than a thousand trooped to the NHA last month opposing the systematic and violent demolition of communities,” Casilao said.
Instead, Casilao said Robredo held her own “Partnerships Against Poverty Summit” when her agency is only one of 12 agencies that President Rodrigo Duterte tasked to implement anti-poverty programs through Executive Order No. 1.
“It should be known that Robredo does not share’s the president vision for an independent country, but is hospitable to foreign countries dictating us, comparable to her party-mate, former President [Benigno] Aquino,” Casilao said.