Cebu City Hall will first deal with with eight commercial establishments encroaching on the three-meter easement of the Mahiga River in Cebu City before dealing with illegal settlers.
“We’re talking about hundreds of structures that have encroached on the Mahiga River alone. Most are residential structures, but there are 50 businesses,” said Joey Daluz, who heads the Cebu City River Management Council (CCRMC).
Daluz said he endorsed the first batch of big companies to the City Legal Office for action “because they have the money to comply” and to send a message that the city is serious in enforcing the easement law.
“Most of the violators are structures of illegal settlers. But since it would take more time and money to deal with them at the moment, we want to go after the businesses first,” he added.
Daluz also heads the Reduce Eliminate Danger Zones (REDZ) project that was formed last year in response to the city’s flooding problems.
Notices
He said CCRMC personnel surveyed the entire stretch of the Mahiga River, from its mouth three times to ensure the accuracy of the list of businesses encroaching on the three-meter easement zone.
The City Legal Office will issue notices of violation to the establishments by next week.
“We will ask them how they can help in removing their obstruction. If they cooperate, we’ll give them a timeframe to comply. If not, we will issue a notice to remove and we will go to court. We are serious in going after them and we are ready to combat them legally,” Daluz said.
He cited as a positive example the case with a substation of the Visayan Electric Co. (Veco) near block 27 in the North Reclamation Area.
Daluz said Veco agreed to set back their property which encroached on part of the Mahiga River.
“We want to focus our time and money on Mahiga River so at least we can see concrete changes. If we can do something in Mahiga, then it can be a model for the other four major rivers in the city,” Daluz added.
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama is planning a drainage summit to revisit the city’s drainage master plan.
At the Sapangdaku River, several families were asked to move out to avoid being swept by floodwaters. After Thursday’s downpour, a 10-foot container of Help Mate Inc. was washed away and fell into the river.
Workers are dismantling the container because the obstruction would hasten an overflow of the river if heavy rains fall again .