CEBU CITY—Amid the revelries here to celebrate the twin Feast of the Señor Santo Niño and the Sinulog Festival, former Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, the city’s anti-flood task force head, went on to demolish parts of two popular establishments along General Maxilom Avenue that have built structures over a river.
The two establishments—White Knight Hotel and Lighthouse Restaurant—already started to demolish their own structures after receiving final notices from the city government but were not doing it fast enough, prompting Cimatu to bring the city’s demolition team to tear down the parking area and the front section of the two establishments, respectively, last Friday.
According to Cimatu, the two establishments violated Presidential Decree No. 1067, or the Water Code of the Philippines, which prohibits infrastructures within the three-meter easement zone along the river.
Cimatu on Friday told reporters that the demolition was meant to show that the city government was serious in the recovery of the three-meter easement zones along its waterways to prevent flooding.
After the clearing operation, Cimatu said the recovered portion of the river had to be rehabilitated through dredging and widening projects.
He said more business and private establishments, which encroached the three-meter easement of the city’s waterways, are set to be demolished in the following weeks.
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama created the “Task Force Gubat sa Baha (War against flooding)” in August last year to address the city’s massive flooding during downpours. He also appointed Cimatu to head the task force along with Gerry Carillo.
Rama formed the task force following the repeated severe floods that hit the city last year amid heavy rains, which were blamed on clogged waterways that were in turn caused by the houses and establishments that had mushroomed along the banks or even covered parts of the city’s major rivers.
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