Pressure on for city gov’t to fix area hit by fire

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City government is chasing time in restoring the residential area in Barangay Sambag 1 that was hit by fire Sunday, as the school where survivors are staying has placed pressure on City Hall to pull the victims out.

“There are possibilities that it will run for a week or two weeks but now with the pressure that the school is putting upon us, we have to act quick since there are many people that are affected,” said Collin Rosell, chief of the city’s Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor (DWUP).

Parents and guardians of students have complained of the inconvenienced caused by the survivors being housed in 14 classrooms of Grades 1 and 2 pupils. The children now have to take classes under tents at the school’s quadrangle.

“Many have been affected, not only the fire victims but also the students. In case of disaster response, time is of the essence,” Rosell said.

DWUP personnel found major problems after inspecting the fire site yesterday, including a poor drainage and septage system and undefined pathways.

“Basically, what threaten the area are the safety and security or peace and order in the area (with poor road access.) The situation there also concerns sanitation and the environmental,” Rosell said.

The city wants to place the area under its Socialized Housing Program but it needs to re-block site for better road access before qualified residents are allowed to return there.

DWUP also plans to include a lot adjacent to the fire site in the re-blocking scheme as it also has similar problems.

“If we will have to implement the re-blocking then we might not only limit on the (fire-stricken) area,” Rosell said.

He said that based on tax map records, the area is subdivided with parcels of land and has designated path roads but is crowded with houses encroaching on the lanes.

“This is now what we are seeing. (But we have) to verify first before we can make our own evaluation on the area for the subdivision scheme purposes,” Rosell said.

“What we will be doing, as called by times of calamity, the city will just aid the structure owners to return and for the place to be restored in an orderly manner… (With those problems,) basic services should be delivered in the area,” Rosell said.

Based on data from the city’s Management Information Computer Services,the total land area of the site is 2,425.180 square meters.

Ownership

As the city prepares the subdivision engineering plan, Rosell said ownership of the lot is not an issue, rather, ownership of the structures that were affected by the fire.

Only those who will be identified to have owned structures will be allowed to return to the area.

“The issue does not depend on who owns the lot. The issue here is that who has been the real structure owners… Out of the principle, the real structure owners are the ones who can return to the area. We still have to determine the qualified structure owners,” said Rosell.

He said the city is also reviewing the ownership of the lot after several claimants have surfaced.

“There are claims. In fact, there was somebody who sent a document to the mayor’s office that I happened to go over. (Regarding who owns the lot,) we are still looking into it,” he said.

“As a template, the city will not make it a reason for private owners to evict people because of a certain calamity like fire,” Rosell added.

He said the city government has been clear that the rights of both the lot owner and calamity survivors will be protected.

“If they are willing to sell, then we will negotiate on behalf of the occupants… All we do is facilitate acquisition by financial back-up and, second, organize the whole community,” he said./JMO (FREEMAN)