Balili property eyed as new home for Naga landslide victims

CEBU Gov. Hilario Davide III is considering giving the controversial Balili property to the Naga City government and converting it into a relocation site for thousands of families displaced following the massive landslide that killed more than 50 people in the city’s interior village.

Davide told a news conference on Monday that the turning over of the province-owned 24.7-hectare beach front property to Naga City would help the local government unit in its rehabilitation efforts.

“Nagsabot nami daan sa Naga nga ibaligya kay interasado sila sa Balili property. Pero tungod sa unsay nahitabo karon, tingalig i-donate nalang na nato. (We earlier had an agreement with Naga to sell the property because they were interested in buying it. But after what happened, we might have to donate it to them),” he said.

“We will willingly give it to Naga,” he added. Davide said the Capitol will also give P10,000 to each family of the fatalities and another P1 million to the Naga City government.

Naga City Mayor Vanessa Kristine Chiong was happy with Davide’s plan.

“He (Davide) committed in front of the President (Rodrigo Duterte) that he would donate it (Balili property) to the city for relocation,” she said in a separate interview on Monday.

If the deal is finalized, Chiong said the city will use the supposed P25 million in downpayment to help the landslide victims.

The purchase and backfilling of parts of the Balili property during the administration of former governor and now Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia of Cebu’s 3rd district were subjects to a graft case before the Sandiganbayan.

In August 2009, Garcia apologized to the people of Cebu for what she said were lapses in the purchase of the property for P98.9 million which was largely underwater and covered with mangroves.

The Office of the Ombudsman ordered the dismissal from public service of Garcia and her perpetual disqualification from running for public office for purportedly backfilling the largely underwater property.

The anti-graft office said the parties, particularly Garcia, acted with gross inexcusable negligence in the purchase of the Balili estate, with the landowner admitting that no survey was conducted before the sale agreement was signed.

The dismissal order has not been implemented by the House of Representatives which has jurisdiction over Garcia.

Mayor Chiong earlier wanted to buy the property for P100 million and convert it into another industrial zone.

Chiong and Davide had been informally discussing about the possible purchase of the property by Naga City until a massive landslide hit Naga’s Barangay Tinaan last week.

But with thousands of people displaced by last week’s landslide, both officials agreed to use the Balili property as relocation site for the victims. After he was informed about the plan, President Rodrigo Duterte immediately instructed Secretary Eduardo del Rosario of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council to supervise the construction of the settlers’ new houses.

During his visit to the landslide survivors in Naga on Friday, the President assured them of the government’s full support, promising to build new houses for the affected families as well as paying for the burial expenses of the fatalities and the hospitalization cost of the injured.