How do you solve a problem like ‘Boracay’ in Mandaue?

For 16 years, residents of sitio Pilit, barangay Cabancalan in Mandaue City had to endure the foul stench of stagnant water that submerges a road they have since called “Boracay”.

Florentino Nimor of the Mandaue City Planning and Development Office said they have been negotiating with private lot owners to complete work on a drainage system to resolve the problem.

“We finished half of the drainage work starting from Butuanon river but it has stopped pending the expropriation proceedings of a private lot towards the submerged road,” Nimor said. He said the problem started when the meter-wide waterways were filled-in  and developed by private lot owners for commercialization during the time of then mayor Thadeo Ouano.

A resident of the area who identified himself only as “Jun” confirmed that the accumulation of stagnant water came about after the private lot owners failed to complete developing the area. During the rainy season, Jun said the water would reach up to their waists and residents, workers and students would be forced to bypass the area.

Barangay chairperson Cynthia Remedio said she has been  receiving complaints from constituents about this area for several years now.

“We have even provided a multicab to ferry students across ‘Boracay’, but  sometimes there is no service when we run out of budget for gasoline, I even sometimes spend my money for gasoline,” she said in Visayan.

Remedio said the city government provided a mobile suction pump truck to remove the stagnant water and discharge it to an elevated drainage along ML Quezon Street.

“It doesn’t mean we will leave the claim of said waterways by making a drainage towards the Butuanon river but practically, the drainage benefits all other areas too,” Nimor said.  He said the City Legal Office is readying expropriation proceedings to expedite completion of the drainage system.

Nimor said 173-square meters of road at P3,500 per square meter will be expropriated for the project.