Residents of sitio Avocado, barangay Lahug were busy delineating their areas to vacate the area. (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)
Cebu City Hall reblocks, rebuffs eviction move
Nearly 60 families displaced by the fire that hit sitio Avocado in barangay Lahug have started rebuilding their homes despite vocal opposition from the lot owner, the University of the Philippines Cebu (UP Cebu).
The Cebu City government surveyed the 4,000-square-meter fire-razed lot at 10 a.m. yesterday to facilitate its reblocking.
Under the reblocking scheme, each of the 57 legitimate home owners affected by the fire was allotted 34 square meters.
UP Cebu Dean Liza Corro voiced disappointment after learning about the survey and reblocking, saying it can be grounds for trespassing.
Lawyer Rene Abcede, a UP Cebu legal counsel, said a criminal complaint will be filed against Cebu City officials.
The charges have not been finalized, but initially, four UP Cebu employees have executed an affidavit accusing Collin Rosell, head of the Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor (DWUP), and his team of “grave coercion, light threats, malicious mischief, theft/robbery, and violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.”
UP employees Nestor Ty, Lito Saladas, Marvin Estrada and Mike Claire Anoba said Rosell and his team threatened them yesterday and told them to stop putting up tents of UP Cebu in the fire site.
Acting Mayor Edgardo Labella welcomed UP Cebu’s plan to file a case.
“The issue has to be settled. If they want the court of law to settle it, so be it. Let them file a case,” he said in a text message.
CITY HALL POSITION
“The position of the city is to protect its constituents. They shouldn’t be displaced by reason of calamity,” he added.
Labella said there is jurisprudence that states that property owners can’t take advantage of settlers affected by calamities and disasters.
The fire site is considered a disaster area, he said.
“We have to let them go back since the (Lahug Elementary) school will also be using the classrooms occupied by the victims,” Labella said.
Cebu City Administrator Dr. Lucelle Mercado talks a UP Cebu representative (wearing black shirt and glasses), who came together with Supt. Rex Derilo (with gray baseball cap), chief of the Regional Special Operations Group and Supt. Clarito Baja (in uniform), head of the PRO-7 Police Community Relations Office, and tried to order the residents of sitio Avocado, barangay Lahug, who were busy delineating their areas to vacate the area. Standing with Mercado is Atty. Collin Rosell (right), head of Cebu City Hall’s Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor (DWUP). (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)
Tension briefly flared up at the site when officials from the Police Regional Office (PRO-7) arrived at the area at about 6 p.m. yesterday and tried to ask the residents to vacate the fire site, only to be rebuffed by City Administrator Lucelle Mercado who happened to be there.
Supt. Clarito Baja, head of the PRO-7’s Community Relations Office, secured the signatures of the occupants who were allowed to stay in the area.
Baja was with Supt. Rex Derilo, chief of the Regional Special Operations Group. About 20 policemen were on standby at the Lahug Elementary School and in UP Cebu.
The police officials said they went to the area to maintain peace and order, but Mercado said there was no need for the police because the residents were not making any trouble and were peacefully rebuilding their houses.
REBLOCKING
Some 57 out of 241 affected families were listed by DWUP as owners of built structures and were assigned a 34-square-meter lot each under the reblocking scheme.
A road network with an eight-meter main road and two-meter roads between the houses for easy access in case of disasters is also part of the reblocking plan.
“The reblocking is final already. Fire is not a reason for City Hall to eject these people from this place since they were already here before the fire. We are merely facilitating to make it safer for them to continue living here,” Robert Barquilla, assistant division chief of DWUP, told reporters who were on the scene.
Those who owned shanties attached to structures, renters and sharers were not allowed to rebuild.
Barquilla and City Hall staffers arrived at the area for the survey yesterday morning while over 50 policemen from the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) stood guard at the Lahug Elementary School.
Residents prepared bamboo sticks and plastic straw ropes so they can already begin to plot their properties after the initial survey for reblocking is completed.
Barquilla said acting Mayor Labella ordered them to proceed with the survey and reblocking.
UNAWARE
Labella said the settlers have occupied the area for so long and that UP Cebu should have gone to court to claim their property.
“They should not take advantage of the misery that has befallen these people,” he said.
Corro said she was dismayed with City Hall’s survey and reblocking, adding that no one from City Hall informed her or even reached out to her and other school officials.
She said she was unaware of any “coordination meeting” that is supposed to take place today between the city government and UP Cebu officials, as was claimed by City Attorney Jerone Castillo in an earlier report.
“I do not understand the city government. They say they want to discuss but they will only sit down and talk with us after they reblocked the lot, so what for is the purpose of our talks, when the informal settlers will return to the site?” Corro said.
The school plans to build a new high school building on the lot, which is part of the 12.8-hectare UP Cebu property.
Corro said a budget had been allotted for the project, but UP Cebu was unable to proceed because the lot is occupied by informal settlers.
UP Cebu has offered the fire victims a two-hectare relocation site in Nivel Hills in Barangay Busay. But most of the informal settlers find the location inconvenient.