[Kasalikasan] A visit to the homes at Smokey Mountain

HILL. Aerial view of the Upper Smokey Mountain in Tondo, Manila.

Franz Lopez/Rappler

'At Smokey Mountain, despite its past and ongoing threat of relocation, people have made farms and communities'

AT A GLANCE

• The author first learned about the issues at Smokey Mountain during a protest in 2024 against relocation and a waste-to-energy facility.
• During visits to Smokey Mountain, the author interacted with residents, including a young girl named Jenny, and documented their stories and struggles related to home and community.
• The author reflects on the ongoing challenges faced by informal settlers and the importance of home, drawing parallels with other regions in the Philippines facing similar issues.

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I first heard of the issue at Smokey Mountain in 2024, when some Tondo residents trooped outside Manila City Hall. It was a protest against relocation and a proposed waste-to-energy facility. 

Before that, I only knew of Smokey Mountain because of the pop group’s hit Paraiso and from a cursory knowledge of a violent demolition at the mountain of trash years ago. 

Last May, I started arranging for a visit. 

On a Thursday in early July, we hiked what is left of Smokey Mountain for a few minutes, and at the top, saw shelters, families, and dogs. There were trees and patches of land where people farm. The smell of garbage permeated the air. From the top, I saw the roofs of the housing tenements. 

I talked to the residents on top of the mountain — one of them was a young girl named Jenny. She struck me because her voice was clear and she offered to read me a poem she wrote. It mattered that I saw her home and heard of her dreams. 

A few days later, I attended a consultation for the Smokey Mountain rehabilitation and talked with an elderly woman seated next to me. She lives in one of the tenements and was among those dispersed in 1995. She had a story to tell. So we went back to Tondo to talk to her again, this time recorded on camera. 

Then I wondered if the relocation site in Cavite would be convincing enough for informal settlers to uproot themselves. We visited the site to see the housing units for ourselves. 

In late July, we spoke with Phil Ecology Systems Corporation. In August, we then spoke with the court-receiver managing the assets related to the Smokey Mountain development. I understood that the company is set on making profits, as is its nature, and the government has yet to settle obligations under this partnership to develop the area. 

I began to see my visits to Smokey Mountain as a continuation of an exploration of the theme of home. Before I went to Tondo, my last fieldwork was in South Upi in Maguindanao del Sur, and in Marawi City. There are indigenous peoples struggling to protect their ancestral land in the Bangsamoro. There are people in Marawi City still calling for a safe and dignified return to their homes nine years after the siege. 

And at Smokey Mountain, despite its past and ongoing threat of relocation, people have made farms and communities. What makes struggling for a disputed environment worthwhile is a home. 

This documentary, which took months of fieldwork, reporting, writing, and editing, can be watched here. You can support our independent journalism by being a Rappler+ member. 

– Rappler.com

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