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.
 
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!).
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