Fort Bonifacio: Behind the Glamour Part I 2010 Historical Background The mid-80s was a period of political change; three years after Ninoy Aquino’s assassination in 1983, Filipinos had a bloodless revolution in 1986 that installed Cory Aquino’s administration. Thereafter, the 1987 Philippine Constitution was enacted ushering dynamic changes even in the military. AFP troops stationed mostly in the south were recalled to their Fort Bonifacio base. The troops and their families were allowed by their unit commanders to “cordon” the periphery of the base. This was the precursor of the villages found today in Fort Bonifacio. The largely unsuccessful but successive coup de etat launched by Pres. Aquino’s former ally – the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM)of Colonel Gregorio Honasan against Pres. Cory Aquino contributed much (the other one being the intermittent power outages) in the further downturn in the economy. These events were big factors for the cash-strapped government to initiate the privatization effort of Fort Bonifacio. The Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) was born through Republic Act (RA) 7227 otherwise known as the Bases Conversion and Development Act of 1992. It was as amended by RA 7917, and further amended by RA 9400. BCDA is mandated to convert Metro Manila camps and former US military base camps into civilian and economic growth centers. BCDA under its social development mission started negotiations with informal dwellers. The agency built high and medium rise structures such as the Centennial Village and the MRB at the Pamayanang Diego Silang (PDS) for them. Whenever a new chairman is appointed, the agency also tried a different approach in dealing with the settlers. The more successful being those initiated by its Chairman and President Rogelio Singson whose stakeholder participation approach led to the development of the Dream Land community in Lower Bicutan and the re-blocking or on-site relocation of the Palacol area better known as Lupang Katuparan in Signal Village. It is under Chairman (now DPWH Secretary) Singson’s term that the biggest block of informal settlers under FOMCRES concluded a peaceful settlement on the relocation and compensation of their members in 2000. I. The FOMCRES-BCDA MOA A. Background on FOMCRES FOMCRES stands for the Federation of Military and Civilian Residents comprising 11 villageassociations during its inception in the early 90s. It united various residents organizations existing in communities within and around Fort Bonifacio. FOMCRES was largely an offshoot of the privatization of Fort Bonifacio. It gave informal residents the opportunity to be stakeholders in the government’s development efforts by engaging the BCDA in negotiations while at the same time defending the residents’ homes against demolition. This became a reality in 1997 with the aide of a sympathetic cult-like organization called the Sagrado Corazon Senor (a.k.a.Tadtad) whose members believed that their supernatural powers can ward off bullets from security forces. As a former government militia they volunteered as the Please cite this paper as: CALAPIT, EUGENIO OCHOA. (2010). Fort Bonifacio: Behind the Glamour, Part I Overview and Discussion of BCDA-FOMCRES MOA, BCDA-Taguig LGU MOA on Conveyance & EO 70 as Amended. Taguig City: Philippines. pdfMachine - is a pdf writer that produces quality PDF files with ease! Get yours now! “Thank you very much! I can use Acrobat Distiller or the Acrobat PDFWriter but I consider your product a lot easier to use and much preferable to Adobe's" A.Sarras - USA
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