The message from the mountains of barangay Busay near the Kinalumsan river in Cebu City is clear: The earth is ours, but not all of it is ours for the taking.
Large cracks from past quakes have marked the mountains, endangering residents who now face the prospect of a deadly landslide like the one that killed at least 78 persons in Naga City, Cebu.
Nagiel Bañacia, the city’s point person for disaster preparedness said the 300 persons imperiled by the mountains may need to be forced to flee.
Less than a year ago, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau in Central Visayas (MGB-7) had recommended the resettlement of the residents.
So what is the plan? The city government said they need state geologists to review their findings before they compel residents to evacuate.
Behold the hard-headedness that would rather be sorry than safe.
What does the city think the MGB’s 2017 assessment is? A drill? A draft?
Why does the MGB-7 agree to conduct a reassessment? Did their previous assessment of the area in question result in a flawed geohazard map?
If the city and MGB-7 truly care about public safety, they would coordinate immediately to clear Busay and 18 other landslide-prone barangays in Cebu City of residents.
Of course it is easier said than done. But check out the choices: A. What is hard to do; B. What will most probably (it is just a question of when) claim more lives and set off more grief.
Let us not wait for sequels across our country to what happened in Naga City.
Appeals for people to stop digging and felling mountain trees are futile. It is unrealistic to expect earth and vegetation to remain untouched when they have become part of a human settlement.
Residents of Busay who may be in the last days of their lives need to be relocated immediately. The same goes for other disaster-prone locales across the country.
Leaders, especially those who seek election or reelection in 2019, grow some guts and make hard decisions such as that of providing your constituents with socialized housing in safe places.
Stop consenting to letting settlers keep the precarious areas they think to be stable property in exchange for votes.
If you have any honor, you would refuse to let it be said that your rise or return to office is built on the votes of people you let live right next to the jaws of death.
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