MANILA, Philippines?Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chair Bayani Fernando is not in favor of the proposal of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to provide more protection for illegal settlers through the writ of amparo.

It will be ?prone to abuse,? said Fernando, whose job includes demolishing illegal shanties and sidewalk obstructions.

Fernando, in a phone interview Saturday, also questioned the intention of the CHR resolution asking the Supreme Court to expand the provision of the writ of amparo to safeguard squatters whose houses are being forcibly torn down by MMDA and other government agencies.

Fernando declined to comment further on the CHR?s motion, saying he had yet to receive a copy of the resolution.

?We already have enough laws to protect them (squatters) and their rights. What we should be wary of is their tendency to abuse their rights,? he said.

Limitations

?All rights have limitations,? he added. ?Nobody can just put up a house in the middle of a creek or street and get away with it.?

The MMDA chair, criticized by urban poor groups for his campaign to demolish shanties and other ?eyesores? in the metropolis, said the CHR chair should ?review what the law says.?

?Under the law, we can summarily demolish houses on creeks and sidewalks,? Fernando said.

Clearing public places of obstructions does not need any court order, Fernando said.

?The CHR officials should review the law,? he said.

?We have never broken the law. We did not violate nor disrespect human rights,? he said.

Fernando stressed that before MMDA personnel tear down houses and other structures in identified danger zones, the agency conducts consultations with the affected parties. Sometimes these ?consultations? have taken years, he said.

He added that MMDA personnel only rip down illegal structures built after 1992 as the law absolved houses constructed before that year.

He denied allegations that the MMDA failed to provide relocation sites for displaced squatters, saying that this was the responsibility of the National Housing Authority (NHA).

?We inform the NHA about our demolition operations. But we do not approve applications of those who will be given relocation sites. That?s the job of the NHA,? he said, adding that De Lima should ?understand our situation.?

?We do not want to destroy people?s houses. But we have to protect the rights of other individual,? Fernando said.