Rescue teams from Cebu City retrieve the body of a 14-year-old boy, who was swept away by the floodwaters of the Kamputhaw River on Oct. 13. CDN Digital | Paul Lauro
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City government is demanding the structure owners of establishments which encroached on the waterways in the city to remove these structures in the given time period for compliance.
Mayor Edgardo Labella said this after a report surfaced that the city had been complacent over these structures.
The mayor denied the reports and said that they had already met the structure owners on October 23, 2020, and he even formed an Adhoc committee to study the removal of these obstructions and illegal structures.
Labella said that soon after the meeting, the City Legal Office (CLO) also issued a compliance order to the hotel which encroached a portion of the Kamputhaw River and where a 14-year-old boy died in a flash flood last October 13, 2020.
Read: Ad hoc committee formed to study encroaching structures in Cebu City waterways
The CLO has asked the hotel to remove the obstructing structure within 15 days of receipt of the notice or else they will be cited with violations.
“The City Legal Office, five of our lawyers, issued a compliance order for them. If they don’t comply, there will be legal consequences,” said the mayor.
It can be remembered that a hotel near the Rahmann Bridge along General Maxilom Avenue built its parking area directly above the Kamputhaw River subsidiary reducing the waterway’s capacity to handle flood. They were provided with the building permit in 1970s.
The structure has also caused garbage to accumulate disrupting the flow of the floodwater and eventually causing the death of the minor on October 13, 2020.
Read: Body of 14-year-old flash flood victim found among garbage in river
The mayor said that the city government did not just sit back on the issue and had been closely coordinating with the establishments for the removal of the structures in all waterways.
Just like the hotel, all establishments encroaching on rivers or waterways are also given 15 days for the removal of the obstructions.
The Office of the Building Offiicial (OBO) initally reported 83 structures of establishments that needed to be removed.
Read: OBO identifies 83 structures along Cebu City riversides violating 3-meter easement
“If they ask for our help, if they need our help for the removal, we will help them. However, we will not spend for the removal because ila man na (they did that),” said the mayor./dbs