Lahug fire victims start rebuilding homes

CEBU, Philippines - Some fire victims in sitio San Jose in barangay Lahug have started rebuilding their houses that were destroyed by a fire last Tuesday night despite the strong objection of officials of the University of the Philippines Cebu Campus that owns the lot.

While others were still cleaning up their respective areas of debris, some were already seen carrying sheets of plywood and coconut lumber from nearby hardware stores as they want to finish their temporary dwellings before the rains come.

Lahug barangay captain Mary Ann de Los Santos said the barangay has provided P20,000 worth of construction materials to each of the families who lost a house during the fire last Tuesday night.

“Mantinil lang usa ni nga balay para duna mi’y kapasilongan kay basin og mokalit lang unya pag-uwan,” a fire victim said.

They are hoping that the city government will provide them with assistance in the form of construction materials.

The Cebu City Council in its session last Wednesday already declared sitio San Jose under a state of calamity to allow the use of the city’s calamity budget for the purchase of construction materials and to pay for the food provided to the fire victims immediately after the incident.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña earlier instructed the City Hall officials to quickly attend to the needs of the fire victims in Lahug even if De Los Santos is his political rival.

Osmeña said he is even willing to talk with the UP officials to ask them to reconsider their move to recover the school’s lot being occupied by informal settlers, but said he will only do this if De Los Santos fails to solve this problem.

Some city officials believe Osmeña might be able to convince UP officials to reconsider their decision to recover the lot from the illegal settlers. Last year the city provided two hectares of land at the South Road Properties for the school. — Rene U. Borromeo/BRP