Quarantine Center, NOAH Complex: Temporary housing sites

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu City government has decided to use the Cebu City Quarantine Center and the NOAH Complex as temporary housing facilities for families that will be transferred due to the series of clearing operations aimed to mitigate flooding in the city.

This is according to Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama during the press conference yesterday at the Cebu City Hall.

Rama’s announcement came after at least 10 houses were cleared from the Estero de Parian in Barangay San Roque on October 11, 2023 for violating the three-meter easement.

Their relocation is part of the efforts of Task Force Gubat sa Baha under the city’s flood control initiative.

The Freeman has reported that the affected families will be temporarily housed at the rooftop of the barangay hall until they complete the construction of their permanent homes in sitio Nangkaville in Barangay Quiot.

“Nindot kaayo ilang transitional housing. Naa naman. Right now, we are transferring (affected families) and that is only interim and we have CCQC,” Rama said.

According to the mayor, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) already assured him that the city can utilize at least 100 spaces to cater to those relocated families.

In previous interviews, Rama said that the container vans used as quarantine and halfway houses during the Covid-19 pandemic will be converted into temporary shelters for those who will be displaced in the city’s Gubat sa Baha.

Rama also stated that some parts of the NOAH Complex, at least two buildings in particular, are also being eyed to be utilized as temporary transitional housing facilities for the affected families as they wait for their permanent relocation sites.

In line with this, Rama directed concerned offices to fasten the pace of establishing these sites, saying that the people can no longer wait.

“We can utilize that as interim. So what do we need? Move it, move it, move it, because the poor cannot wait, and the children cannot wait, and if something will happen in the mountain it does not distinguish, a landslide will never distinguish a rich or poor, and even an infant,” said Rama.

Since natural calamities such as landslide cannot be predicted, Rama ordered all department and division heads to take the matter ‘seriously.’ — (FREEMAN)