DILG to Rama: Establish the resettlement areas first

CEBU, Philippines - Mayor Michael Rama has been advised by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to develop and prioritize the establishment of new resettlement areas in Cebu City and to pursue slum upgrading for urban settlers before uprooting them from their locations.

Lawyer Jesus B. Doque, director III of the DILG-central office legal division, had sent a letter to Rama’s office, but the mayor said yesterday he has not received it yet.

Rama said that there is no need for the DILG officials to remind him of the government’s policy on how to evict the informal settlers because he knows about it.

Councilor Alvin Dizon, chairman of the City Council’s committee on housing, said Doque had acted on his letter complaining about Rama’s previous refusal to provide relocation sites to the informal settlers, whose houses were subjected to demolition from the Mahiga Creek for the reason that these are constructed in danger areas.

In a letter, the DILG legal division reminded Rama of the provisions under section 29 of the Urban Development and Housing Act which state that “the local government units, in coordination with the National Housing Board, shall implement relocation and resettlement of persons living in danger areas such as esteros, garbage dumps, riverbanks, shorelines and others.

Doque said the law provides that the head of the local government units should provide relocation or resettlement sites with basic services and facilities and access to employment and livelihood opportunities sufficient to meet the basic needs of the affected families.

Dizon narrated that Doque told him that Rama has been advised by the DILG legal division to ensure that the provisions of the law are properly complied with before any demolition.

According to Dizon he was compelled to write the DILG central office when Rama, in the beginning, expressed that he is not inclined to provide relocation or financial assistance to the families affected by the clearing operations in the creek, particularly at the Mahiga Creek for fear that it will be made as precedence by others.

DILG-7 regional director Pedro Noval has been ordered by DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo to investigate the complaint of the affected residents and to submit to him the results of his probe.

Rama was forced to conduct clearing operations of the illegal structures at the Mahiga Creek particularly those that are built on the creek, because these have been tagged as the cause of the floods in the North Reclamation Area last January 25.

 The city now wants to clear the three-meter easement of the creek to make it easy for the dredging machines to operate. The City Hall’s clearing team has already cleared more than 100 structures built on the three-meter easement.

It prompted the residents to file criminal and administrative charges against the mayor and some other City Hall officials before the Office of the Ombudsman.

Widening Streets

Meanwhile, Rama yesterday met with some of his department and division heads and discussed with them his plan to widen the F. Villa and T. Villa Streets in barangay T. Padilla and he was so happy when his subordinates signed a memorandum of undertaking and commitment of support about his plan.

Those who signed the two-page pledge are heads from the Department of Engineering (DEPW), Division for the Welfare of Urban Poor (DWUP), City Traffic Operations Management (CITOM), Squatters Prevention Encroachment Elimination Division (SPEED), City Disaster Coordinating Council (CDCC), Parks and Playground Commission, City Planning and Development Office, City Treasurer’s Office, Department of Social Welfare and Services and others.

The City Hall officials have assured they will try their best to finish the project by August 18 because “the same is very vital for the development of the area, including its accessibility and improvement, among others for the general welfare.”

Rama said the city will ask the lot owners, who will be affected by the widening of roads in T. Villa and F. Villa, to help the city in line with its policy of Public, Private Partnership (PPP).

The mayor is expecting that the first 100 outstanding taxpayers in Cebu City will also help the project happen.

Some of the lot owners in barangay Tejero are scheduled to meet with Rama at City Hall because they will try to ask the mayor to reduce the 10-meter width road plan to just eight-meter wide considering that there are only few vehicles that pass by in their place.

Another meeting with the fire victims and lot owners in Tejero will be also conducted this afternoon so that those who will be affected with the widening of roads will understand the situation.

Rama the other week announced that he wants to implement a city-wide reblocking, meaning to widen the already narrow access roads in the thickly populated barangays purposely to make the firefighters easy to respond in case of fire incidents in these places.   - (THE FREEMAN)