According to science, fire is born when three essential elements come together at the same time: oxygen, heat, and fuel. But these days, when fire breaks out in Metro Manila, and sirens echo through the city’s busy streets, people rarely think about science. Instead, they assume the fire has cleared the exact plot of land where a new development project is scheduled to rise.
Sadly, these assumptions don’t just come out of nowhere. They are rooted in a kind of street knowledge, a collective memory built from years of urban gentrification, displacement of urban poor communities, and violent demolitions.
In Metro Manila alone, more than 8,000 families were displaced by demolition between 2010 and 2025. Across these cases, a predictable pattern emerges, shifting from court-ordered evictions to violent demolitions and suspicious fires. Almost always, these displacements are tied directly to massive infrastructure projects such as railways, land reclamation, flood control, and highways. Because many cases remain undocumented or underreported, these partial figures likely understate the true scale of the crisis.
Rapid-fire delivery
The pressure has intensified this year. The Marcos Jr administration entered 2026 under immense pressure to regain public trust, following major setbacks last year, including controversies regarding anomalous flood control projects and graver economic distress.
To pump economic growth and repair its public image, the administration has dubbed 2026 its “delivery year”, fast-tracking infrastructure projects to gentrify urban centers and attract foreign investment. To force efficiency, government agencies are now subjected to strict, two-week progress monitoring, while compliant contractors are rewarded with quicker disbursements and streamlined payments.
Passing into law Republic Act (RA) 12289, or the Accelerated and Reformed Right-of-Way Act, late last year, also sets the “delivery year” in its perfect motion today. The law explicitly extends critical government privileges to authorized private public-service providers. Under Section 15, these private entities can now utilize a standardized valuation system to make fast market-rate offers; secure immediate land possession via court-deposited expropriation fees if negotiations fail; and enjoy the exact same protection under RA 8975 that bars lower courts from halting their infrastructure projects that are deemed vital by the government.
This desperate rush to build quickly creates a terrifying by-product – the pressure to settle right-of-way issues by any means necessary, in the blink of an eye.
The consequences are grievous. Just five months into 2026, the fires and demolitions have already affected 7,043 families. In less than half a year, the pace of displacement has nearly matched the total number of 8,000 families affected over the previous decade.
Building on community ashes
Recent headlines paint a clear picture: the destroyed communities sit directly on land targeted for government infrastructure or private commercial expansion.
- NIA Road, Quezon City: A massive fire on March 6 left 4,000 families homeless. This was followed by a formal demolition on April 9, and yet another fire on April 30, affecting 71 more families. A housing project under the Expanded Pambansang Pabahay para sa Pilipino (4PH) Program is scheduled to rise on these ruins. Despite the fact that these projects are also offered to government employees, only about 2,000 of the families affected by the fire are expected to receive a unit.
- Parola, Tondo: Fires razed these communities on March 6 (affecting 349 families) and again on May 24 (affecting 2,134 families). This is the exact site of the upcoming North-South Harbor Bridge, a cable-stayed bridge designed to connect Barangay 20 in the North Harbor to Baseco Island (Barangay 649) in the South Harbor, which itself suffered a fire in April. Furthermore, the C3-R10 Extension of the Southern Access Link Expressway (SALEX) is slated to run directly over Parola.
- Pandacan & Western Bicutan: Demolitions took place on March 21 and April 14 to clear land for Skyway Stage 3 (Section 2A) and Skyway Stage 4, respectively, leaving an unconfirmed number of residents displaced.
- Pulong Kendi, Sta. Ana, Taguig: A fire on May 26 displaced 489 families. The neighborhood sits right along the path of the Laguna Lakeshore Road Network Phase I, a 37.5-kilometer primary highway and shoreline embankment stretching from Taguig to Calamba, Laguna.
Erased from the blueprint
These cases represent just a fraction of the 191 infrastructure flagship projects targeted for completion by the end of the Marcos administration and beyond. Majority or 103 of these projects are crammed into just three regions, the National Capital Region (NCR), Calabarzon, and Central Luzon.
Following historical patterns, it is clear that the urban poor—long reduced by land developers to a mere “eyesore” or an obstacle to progress—bear the brunt of such “development”. Worse still, aggressive displacement completely lacks a comprehensive housing safety net. Data from the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) shows that out of 1,515 City Land Use Plans (CLUPs) monitored nationwide, 1,277 (or 84%) are not integrated with a local shelter plan.
Of all CLUPs monitored, 100% in Central Luzon and 68% in Calabarzon do not have local shelter plans. On the other hand, while Metro Manila’s cities have technically integrated shelter plans into their CLUPs, the reality on the ground tells a different story.
On the other hand, when resettlement is provided, it is almost always located in remote, peripheral areas, cut off from central urban resources, jobs, and support systems. The lack of livelihood opportunities inevitably forces displaced families back into urban slums to survive, only to be displaced by the next development project.
Keeping the flame alive
Authorities have resorted to arson, a covert and vicious means of evicting the poor, because they know that they cannot defeat the collective refusal of residents who are standing their ground in defense of their basic human rights. They also cannot credibly claim to be building for genuine and inclusive development, because it is clear to all that these projects are built on displacement, exclusion, and violence.
An urban poor community may be razed to the ground. But the urban poor’s long history of relentless struggle almost always ignites a flame that carries on until people’s development is realized.