Volunteers Integration Program 2006

Ati Community

Due to landlessness and highly usurious working conditions in their previous agricultural home in the Visayas, this Ati community was forced to relocate to an islet surrounded by a river in Montalban, Rizal in 1985. Since then, most of them have earned a living through construction work or plying herbal medicines. After ten years of anonymous existence, the local government of Montalban took notice of their condition and claimed they were perilously living in the island under threat of being flooded. Once again, the Ati community was displaced, forced to relocate to Sitio Maislap where Muslim communities and other urban poor residents from Quezon City had been previously relocated.

Upon consultation with Ati community members last April 2006, CenPEG determined that the underlying reason for their relocation was not due to the imminent threat of flooding. After all, it felt odd that the local government had waited ten years before finally taking the community's well-being into serious account. Ati residents said they later learned that a known local landowner had taken interest in the islet and had wanted to develop the area for business purposes.

vip2006

vip2006
Smiling through hardships. The Ati community of Montalban has relocated to avoid conflict several times. They now reside at Sitio Maislap, Montalban, where many of them live at an almost hand-to-mouth existence, and are losing their cultural identity. But typical of Filipino perseverance, they still find ways and reasons to smile (especially if they're in front of the camera!).

<<< previous page • vip main page >>>