The Mandaue City government will demolish structures along the Mahiga Creek on Tuesday next week.
The houses cover a portion of the mouth of the river across Block 27 near SM Hypermarket, said Jose Daluz who heads the Cebu City River Management Council.
Daluz was appointed by both Cebu City and Mandaue City officials to speak on their behalf concerning issues on the Mahiga Creek.
“I have the permission of Mandaue to say that on Tuesday, there willl be a removal of settlers opposite the Cebu City side near SM Hypermart,” he said.
He said Mandaue had earlier planned this but decided to push through next week after securing support from Camp Crame to field security personnel for crowd control during the operation.
Some settlers started removing their structures voluntarily.
Mandaue City Hall already has a 6.5 relocation site in barangay Paknaan and housing program for the dislocated river dwellers.
Mandaue City Legal Officer Giovanni Tianero called on the settlers at the Mandaue side to move out and transfer to the relocation site prepared for them.
He asked the occupants to bear with the situation as site development of part of the area is still ongoing “but they can already build structures temporarily there.”
While Cebu City officials, under the Reduce, Eliminate Danger Zones (REDZ) program have already cleared their portion along the Mahiga Creek in Block 27, the Mandaue City side still has a lot of structures.
The REDZ program cleared the block 27 area, built a riprap and cleared a five-meter easement zone from the river before the road.
Daluz said the Mandaue City officials were interested in the embankment project and plans to build a park in the easement zone on their side.