Tondo folk hit stalled road repair

Some 1,000 Tondo families yesterday hit the city government over the stoppage of the much-delayed opening and widening of a stretch of road which they claimed is the only access path to their "virtual firetrap" three-hectare subdivision.

Families belonging to the Geronimo-Manotoc Estate Awardees Association in the first district of Tondo, beneficiaries of the local governnment’s Land for the Landless Program, claimed the concreting and widening of the 400-meter long Dagupan Extension was abruptly stopped last year after a portion of the road (78-meter long) was asphalted.

The irate residents said the road construction was stopped after local officials failed to provide habitable relocation sites for affected families whose houses stand on Dagupan street’s right-of-way.

The residents are proposing the temporary settlement of the affected families to the unoccupied five-story medium-rise building constructed and maintained by the government right inside the estate. Ironically, the city government could not offer the building even temporarily, the residents claimed. – Nestor Etolle