Mandaue City Hall personnel, settlers in row over reblocking

Residents complain of the clearing operation at the fire site in Barangay Guizo, Mandaue City saying the city needs to secure a court order as the lot was already donated to them. (CDN PHOTO/JULIT JAINAR)

TENSION broke out between members of the Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue (TEAM) and fire victims who occupied a city government owned site in barangay Guizo, Mandaue City Friday morning.

The TEAM personnel were tasked to clear the area for reblocking that is scheduled to start in two weeks. But settlers like Rosinda Soco demanded that they be shown a court order.

“This land was donated by the government,” she said. Another resident, Rosalindo Rello, showed a copy of a title supposedly showing that the lot was donated to them by the city.

Mandaue City Information officer Roger Paller said there is no need for a court order since the property is owned by the city and they were clearing the area for reblocking.

Some police officers have secured the area which is being cleared of structures in preparation for backfiling of materials.

About 60 houses were built in the area.

The urban poor group Fedmacupi filed a case against Mandaue City Hall at the Ombudsman-Visayas that prevented development of the site.

But the city government contended that it owned the property and thus had authority to develop it.

As of 10 a.m. clearing operations has started with policemen securing the area.

Paller said they will start with backfilling today using the filling materials that were left stuck in the road for quite a time now.