Women’s rights group commend Inday Sara

By TANGGOL BAYI
July 4, 2011

Women’s rights group Tanggol Bayi today commended Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte for supporting the plight of the urban poor in Agdao, Davao City by her intervention in the demolition of the houses and shanties in the said area, that was supposed to affect 217 families in the area, including women and children.

Cristina Palabay, Tanggol Bayi Spokesperson, said Inday Sara, as she is known in Davao, as the first woman mayor of the city clearly expressed her concern on the situation of the urban poor who will be left homeless after the floods hit parts of Davao the past week.

“Inday Sara may have lost all ‘lady's graces’ because he punched a man who is hell-bent on leaving people homeless but she definitely articulated a most graceful support for the struggling urban poor in Davao. What she has done, though it may be in such a form, and the efforts she has exerted to temporarily stop the demolition of the poor’s houses show that local chief executives can intervene and decisively stop the dislocation of the urban poor, if and when they take the side of the oppressed. It is rare that a mayor in this country takes the side of the poor,” Palabay said.

The urban poor group Kadamay claimed that 10 residents were wounded, including a 12-year-old girl, in the violence that broke out at the site before the mayor arrived.