Rama dares VM: Take lead in clearing easement zone

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama has challenged Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella to spearhead the clearing of the three-meter easement zone of creeks and rivers of illegally constructed structures, which include hundreds of residential dwellings.

Rama has left for Portugal and asked those he left behind to especially clear Mahiga Creek of structure that violate the easement zone, saying he liked it to be his “arrival gift.”

Labella said he will coordinate with lawyer Jose Daluz III, head of the city’s Reduce Danger Zone in Rivers (Redz-R), in removing the illegal structures.

Labella said he would also ask members of the Cultural and Historical Affairs Commission to include in their project the restoration of old bridges in the city.

Rama had observed that creeks and rivers in the city have slowly become narrow because people living by the said waterways have expanded their houses to the rivers and creeks by constructing ripraps.

Labella said the area along Sikatuna  corner  Bonifacio Streets is usually flooded with knee-deep water because the creek that crosses Sikatuna could no longer accommodate the volume of rain water coming from Barangay Day-as.

The vice mayor inspected the creek two weeks ago, particularly the bridge that spans Sikatuna that was constructed way back in 1920, and learned that the creek was wider back then.

He observed that the wall of a nearby building along Sikatuna that deals steel products had already reached the middle of the bridge making the creek into a mere ditch.

It was also found out that some unscrupulous persons living near the bridge along Mabini Street near V. Gullas Street, had made the portion of Parian Estuary narrower because the houses had expanded into the waterway up to the middle of the bridge.

Daluz said the city is serious of its mission to clear creeks and rivers they would be sending notices against the concerned business establishments and private individuals.

After making the challenge on Labella, Rama said that when he was still vice mayor he had so many projects and one of them was the Adopt-a-Police-Station, where he was able to convince the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry to construct police stations.

The mayor also claimed that he was the one responsible for the transfer of the Cebu City Jail in Barangay Kalunasan from its previous site along W. Geonzon Street at the Asiatown I.T. Park, where the then Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center was located.  (FREEMAN)