Council asks Rama: Stop Mahiga demolition

CEBU, Philippines - Members of the Cebu City Council have asked Mayor Michael Rama to immediately stop the city’s plan for a clearing operations along the Mahiga Creek, which has been undertaken after a state of calamity was declared because of flooding caused by continuous rains.

As this developed, Rama yesterday welcomed the investigation conducted by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to find out whether he has complied with the guidelines when he ordered the demolition of houses along the Mahiga Creek in barangay Mabolo.

Rama also turned down the request of the Nasudnong Katawhang Kabus (Nakabus), an urban poor group in Cebu City whose officials are asking him to extend for six month the demolition and clearing of shanties beside the Mahiga Creek.

In yesterday’s session, Councilor Augustus “Jun” Pe Jr. informed the council that the National Housing Authority (NHA) said that at least P78 million from its poverty alleviation fund (PAF) is already available for release.

“We are pleased to appraise your office that the amount is available to cover the requirement for resettlement projects in Cebu City. The beneficiaries identified per Republic Act 8522 are informal settlers occupying creeks, esteros and waterways in the Cebu City,” Pe said, quoting the NHA letter addressed to Cebu City South District Rep. Tomas Osmeña.

Under RA 8522 or the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 1998, Cebu City is a beneficiary of PAF-3.

 According to Pe, the funds are to be used for resettlement projects in the city for the informal settlers.

It was in 2004 that the City Government used P21,808,200 from the P100-million to acquire a 22,956-square meter property located in Barangays Budlaan and Talamban as relocation site of occupants residing at the Sitios Upper and Lower in Barangay Carreta.

Pe hopes that the mayor will stop the city’s clearing operation with the available funds for relocation sites.

The residents of Mahiga Creek already filed a case before the court, asking for injunction with prayer for the issuance of preliminary and temporary restraining order to stop the city government from demolishing their homes.

The petitioners said they have been living in the Mahiga Creek for past 20 years and claimed they are qualified beneficiaries of the socialized housing program under R.A. 7279.

In a related development, the council’s committee on urban planning and development also asked Rama to reconsider his decision not to provide relocation site and financial assistance to the families affected by the City’s clearing operation in Mahiga Creek.

“As public servants, we are sworn to uphold and implement laws no matter how hard it is. However, let us not forget that we are also duty bound to promote the general welfare of the people who have chosen us to serve,” City Councilor Noel Eleuterio Wenceslao, chairman of the committee on urban planning, said in his committee report.

The families whose houses were demolished claimed the mayor refused to provide any relocation or financial assistance to them.

However, Wenceslao clarified in his report that the committee is not opposing the mayor’s office to recover the three-meter easement along rivers and creeks but is requesting the mayor to provide relocation sites and cash assistance.

“The implementation of the three-meter easement without a holistic plan of providing alternative relocation sites vis-à-vis economic and livelihood opportunity would surely defeat the purpose of attaining a sustainable community, thus the end does not justify the means,” Wenceslao said.

Osmeña accused Rama of failing to conduct consultations with the affected informal settlers at the Mahiga but the mayor denied this.

 Rama said the demolition was postponed for several times after Osmeña granted the request of Mabolo barangay captain Rey Ompoc. It was not implemented until Osmeña’s term ended. Rama assumed that Osmeña had also conducted series of consultations with the same families whose houses were cleared two weeks ago.

Rama is facing criminal and administrative charges before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas for allegedly violating the provisions of the Urban Development and Housing Act and for not complying with Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG)’s memorandum circular requiring consultations with affected residents before destroying their houses.

Rama said his move of clearing the illegal structures of the urban poor from the creek, including those that are constructed within the three-meter easement, is a way to protect their lives and to prevent floods that may affect hundreds of other residents.

As to the DILG probe, Rama welcomes it, as long as the DILG would get his side for a fair investigation.

Nakabus president Evangeline Abejo said her group is supporting the urban poor families whose houses in Sitio San Isidro II, Mabolo were destroyed by the Squatters Prevention Encroachment Elimination Division (SPEED).

Rama will just wait for any court order on the matter since a complaint was already filed.

He stressed the City had offered the occupants a relocation site in barangay San Jose but none of them accepted the offer.

The FREEMAN visited the affected area yesterday and found out that a backhoe of the City continues to dredge the Mahiga Creek while house owners were slowly taking whatever items that they could use to build houses in other areas. —/JPM (FREEMAN)