CONTRARY to the glowing praise that the super rich residents of Dasmariñas Village have showered on their security guards, in the wake of their altercation with Makati Mayor Junjun Binay, a report by GMA Network’s Mike Enriquez and complaints posted on the Internet depict many instances of Gestapo-like arrogance and rudeness on the part of the guards.
I wrote about the Enriquez report in a column entitled, “TNTs in their own country,” outraged by the idea of Filipinos being treated like illegal aliens right here in the Philippines – at Dasmariñas Village.
In the wake of the Binay incident and the volley of condemnation that the mayor and his family got from economist-columnist-TV host Winnie Monsod, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano and the usual kibitzers on social media, I did a Google search on this enclave of the very rich and found a lot of interesting entries. For instance, Dasma is the only private subdivision cited in Wikipedia for the “rude behavior” of its security guards, thus giving it international notoriety.
The only explanation for this kind of behavior is that the Dasmariñas Village Association encourages it. One reason is its ongoing conflict with the foreign embassies operating within the village premises, as reported by Veronica Uy in the July 16, 2007 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Unfortunately, those who have suffered from this conflict are the folks euphemistically called our country’s “heroes,” because they keep the Philippine economy afloat: the OFWs.
Wrote Uy: “Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Administration Franklin Ebdalin said the embassies of Nigeria, India, Russia, and Kuwait have complained that the Dasmariñas Village Association has barred Filipino visa applicants from entering the village for some months now…
“’We continue to mediate between these embassies and the officers of the Dasmariñas Village Association because we fear that some of these foreign governments might retaliate or impose the same strict measures on our posts abroad,’ said Ebdalin in an interview. Ebdalin said the homeowners are not comfortable letting visa applicants enter their residential village.”
Money Go Round columnist Vic Agustin recently wrote about the setback suffered by the DVA when the Court of Appeals denied its petition to stop a homeowner, Cesar F Arnaldo, Inc., from renting his Paraiso Street property to the Iranian embassy.
Wrote Agustin: “In opposing the lease, the village association claimed that the Ayala-imposed deed of restrictions prohibit the properties within the multimillionaires’ row from being used for commercial purposes.”
But the appellate court had ruled that the decision of the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board, which had earlier dismissed the Dasma complaint, had already become final. The HLURB had cited an earlier case of homeowner Hilarion Henares Jr., who had rented his property along the same street to the Romanian embassy.
Agustin continued: “Citing an opinion from the Department of Foreign Affairs that the issuance of visas is not a commercial activity but a sovereign act, ‘the apprehension of (the village association) would overcrowd the subdivision, increase the pressure on common facilities, create problems on cleanliness and sanitation, and cause greater security risk to its residents is, at best speculative,’ the HLURB said.
“Unfazed by the judicial setbacks, the Dasma association in turn tightened up at the gates, holding back visitors and visa applicants to the eight embassies, including China and India, within the village. According to the grapevine, an embassy personnel will now have to fetch visa applicants and return them to the same gate, before another batch of applicants are allowed in. In addition, the village association has also limited the number of visa applicants that can enter Dasmariñas within the day.
“Despite problems with the association, Forbes and Dasma homeowners prefer renting their properties to foreign embassies because the diplomatic missions are under no obligation to report their lease payments to the local tax authorities. Depending on the condition of the house, a 1,000-square-meter property within Forbes and Dasma can command anywhere from P300,000 to even as high as P700,000 a month.”
Now, that explains it. Within Dasma, there are folks who want to have their cake and eat it too. The result has been the victimization of intending OFWs, wanting nothing but a chance to work overseas. To do so, they have to endure the Gestapo tactics of the Dasma village security guards, conceivably under orders from the “Fuhrers.”
There may be another reason for the apparent bad blood between DVA and the Binays. My Google search revealed an item in the January 15, 2000 issue of the Inquirer about the residents of Dasmariñas Village being up in arms over the opening of their subdivision to public transport:
“…The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority opened the village roads late last month to serve as alternate routes due to the total closure of the northbound portion of EDSA from Magallanes interchange to Ayala Avenue.”
As it turns out, the MMDA chairman at the time was Vice-President Jejomar Binay: “Despite strong opposition from villagers, MMDA chair Jejomar Binay pushed through with the opening invoking an order from President Estrada.”
At any rate, in his altercation with the security guards, the Makati Mayor Junjun Binay was harshly criticized for acting entitled” to special privileges, like going through a barred gate. But, according to sociologist Nicole Curato, the residents of Dasmariñas Village are as guilty of the same attitude of “entitlement.”
Writing for Rappler, Curato had this to say about gated communities like Dasma:
“Social scientists have expressed caution against the tendency of gated communities to deepen urban inequality. At the core of fencing off communities from the squalor of the city is a process of social segregation based on income, and, in some cases, race and ethnicity…
“Also prevalent in gated communities are ‘procedures’ that, in effect, set privileged residents apart from suspicious outsiders. That Mayor Binay was not granted the courtesy ‘he deserved’ is only secondary to everyday practices of exclusion enforced by these residential enclaves.
“Each day, thousands of working class communities – those on whose backs urban developments are built – are subject to random stops and searches. Separate service elevators and waiting areas are provided for cleaners, drivers, delivery boys and security guards. Intense questioning of those attempting to enter exclusive areas whose physical profile and economic status do not correspond to the template of home or unit owners have become routine.”
Curato continues: “This is where the bigger scandal lies. The hidden cost of residential enclaves is the institutionalization of class segregation in the city, where social interaction cluster around socio-economic lines. Restricted public access to otherwise common spaces deters meaningful social interactions among citizens who do not share the same social and economic background, engendering ignorance, mistrust and suspicion towards the other….
“At worst, these trends can create a generation of privileged urban inhabitants with entitlement complex—the type of citizens who have an inflated sense of self-importance and socialized to think they deserve more good things in life than others by virtue of their wealth. This is the same character flaw for which the Binays are criticized and it is most important that we change the social context that brings about such complex.”
I suggest Winnie Monsod and Alan Peter Cayetano should reread that last paragraph of Nicole Curato’s report. Maybe they will be less harsh on the Binays. After all, Christ did say that before you point out the plank in your neighbor’s eye, you should take off the mote in yours.
And while on this topic, I noted how, in a recent column, Monsod asked how Rep. Abigail Binay, who lives in Dasma, could afford to do so.
Without suggesting any malice on the part of Monsod, how would she feel if she were also asked how she, as a UP professor, and her husband, as a former COMELEC official, also managed to afford their home in this enclave of the very rich?
Frankly, like Binay, Monsod should not feel obliged to respond.
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