CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE  Residents of a shantytown in Mother Ignacia St. in Quezon City try to block a phalanx of policemen in riot gear in a desperate attempt to save their homes from a wrecking crew. PHOTO by Miguel De Guzman
CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE
Residents of a shantytown in Mother Ignacia St. in Quezon City try to block a phalanx of policemen in riot gear in a desperate attempt to save their homes from a wrecking crew. PHOTO by Miguel De Guzman

Three persons were injured, including a police officer who was brought to the hospital after sustaining wounds from rocks and hard objects thrown at them by informal settlers whose shanties along Mother Ignacia Street in Barangay South Triangle, Quezon City, were demolished on Tuesday.

In the morning, the informal settlers hurled hard objects at members of a demolition team who were to serve a court order giving the Presidential Commission on the Urban Poor the authority to relocate them.

But as the demolition team headed by the city’s Control, Prevention and Removal of Illegal structures and Squatting task force and backed by anti-riot policemen tried to get to their shanties, angry residents began throwing even bottles with urine and feces to stop the team from doing its job.

Supt. Limuel Obon of Quezon City Police District Station 10

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(Kamuning), which has jurisdiction over the area requested the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) for assistance.

Radio reporter Allan Gatus was even hit with a bottle, which he suspects contains chemicals that tore his denim pants, causing some itchiness in different parts of his body and prompting him to have a quick bath.

Gatus said he is contemplating to file charges against the unruly informal settlers.

Tension only subsided when the BFP trained their water hoses on the rowdy residents.

According to Dennis Protacio of the Presidential Commission on the Urban Poor, 89 families had to be moved out of the shanties since the BFP declared the site to be unsafe for the residents.

Protacio said there were originally 337 families living there but most of them had been transferred to a relocation site in Pandi, Bulacan.