28 Aban, Sapiandante, Amata-Justo, and Roldan better leaders and grassroots organizers of their community. At that time, Ka Linda worked alongside Flora Asiddao-Santos, an icon of urban poor organizing. Together, they went to dialogues with various actors, such as the Quezon City government, concerned official agencies, the landowner, the church, and allied nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and social movements. These dialogues took place alongside spontaneous pickets, mass actions, human barricades, propaganda development, and networking for broad mass support and media projection (Badilla 1997). Ka Linda and the other elders of the community could still vividly recall the days when the community was under siege. Poor and with no security of tenure in a depressed urban area of Metro Manila, they daringly defended their lives and community from the Quezon City demolition crew, armed security guards, the police, and the government’s Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Team who jolted them out of their beds before daybreak with indiscriminate firing of gunshots, bulldozing of their site, dismantling of their shanties, lobbing teargas to disperse them, and burning their confiscated belongings. While human barricades were set up in the vicinity of the demolished site, around 500 ASAMBA families camped out and picketed at the Quezon City Hall for over a month to pressure the local government of the late mayor Ismael Mathay, Jr. to come to the negotiating table and cease the violent evictions that already killed one leader, elderly residents, and infants who succumbed to tear gas (ASAMBA, forthcoming; Cueto 1997; Padua 1997; Ubac 1997). The ASAMBA experience, among other cases, generated public outrage on how the government grossly violated its very own Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992 (UDHA; Republic Act No. 7279), particularly on demolition and eviction protocols under Section 28.3 Reaping the fruits of their sacrifices and resistance, ASAMBA members continue to own and manage their hard-fought properties while being engaged in various livelihood activities. Although locked down in the middle of an uncertain situation under COVID-19 restrictions, having a shelter of their own and a responsive community to rely on have become their formidable social support system. 3 Section 28 of the UDHA stipulates that there should be “(2) [a]dequate consultations on the matter of resettlement with the duly designated representatives of the families to be resettled and the affected communities in the areas where they are to be relocated;” that “(5) [e]xecution of eviction or demolition only during regular office hours from Mondays to Fridays and during good weather, unless the affected families consent otherwise;” and that “(6) [n]o use of heavy equipment for demolition except for structures that are permanent and of concrete materials.”