The Mandaue City government is asking for patience from the fire victims of last year’s Barangays Guizo and Mantuyong fire who were not lucky enough to win in the raffling of lots in the two barangays.
Lawyer Elaine Bathan, Mandaue City Mayor Luis Gabriel Quisumbing’s chief of staff, said Housing and Urban Development Office is always there to assist and guide them on having their own homes in the future.
“We are trying to balance the rights of everybody. We ask them to just be patient enough,” said Bathan.
Only 359 families of the 657 families who were displaced by the March 2016 fire were able to return to the barangays and build their homes.
The remaining families were awaiting relocation sites for them to transfer to.
However, there were some people who claimed to be living in the fire site who were not recognized as beneficiaries of the donated lot.
Rosenda Soco, 59, said she had been living in the site since the late ’70s, but she was not recognized as a beneficiary because the lot where she lived was a private lot.
Soco asked how could it be a private property when it was a shoreline years ago?
Meanwhile, Bathan also said that they were enforcing an ordinance to clear the city’s roads and ease traffic, and they are also protecting the rights of legal vendors who pay taxes and have business permits.
Bathan cited this reasons after members of a vendors group claimed that they were being oppressed by the city government for demolishing their illegal stalls.
Rowena Perez of the Mandaue City Sidewalk Vendor’s Association said they would hold a march rally and seek the help of Archbishop Jose Palma through a dialogue.
Bathan, however, said that they were open to not closing the door to help these illegal vendors when the new public market would be completed.