Displaced residents face demolition anew

CEBU, Philippines - Former Mahiga settlers who are temporarily staying at the block 27 in the North Reclamation Area are facing another demolition after Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama ordered the Squatters Prevention and Encroachment Elimination Division to clear the area.

Rama said the residents are overstaying already and must be able to stand on their own since they have been provided livelihood assistance.

The over 100 families demolished along the Mahiga Creek were allowed to temporarily stay at block 27. All of them already received their P10,000 livelihood assistance from the city government. The last batch received their assistance just last week.

Rama said that they should have been relocated to the city’s relocation site by now.

SPEED chief Noel Artes said that he gave the residents the final notice last September yet. The residents have been staying there since their illegal structures built along Mahiga Creek were demolished early last year following heavy flooding.

But the residents appealed for extension because the city has not prepared their relocation site yet in Barangay Budlaan.

Some of them, though already left the temporary shelter to stay with relatives or rent a house.

Artes said that he is just awaiting a word from the Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor if the relocate site is ready so they can implement the clearing.

Once he is assured that the relocation site is ready, he will send another clearing notice that should be effective seven days upon receipt.

The Mayor tasked disaster council action officer Alvin Santillana to follow-up on the matter with SPEED and DWUP.

Artes said that not only the residents of Mahiga Creek need immediate relocation, but also the residents demolished in Carreta.

Rama said that he wants the clearing of creeks and restoration of three meter easement zones intensified now that the rainy season is expected to bring more flooding in the city.

The mayor said he is amenable to the suggestion of the DWUP to buy relocation sites in the lowland or outside Cebu City if necessary to entice more informal settlers to be relocated and leave the danger areas.

Rama said that in the first place, the previous administrations should not have bought relocation areas in the mountain barangays very far from the city proper and very expensive to develop.  (FREEMAN)