THE Mandaue City government decided to allow fire victims of Barangays Guizo and Mantuyong to stay inside the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) ahead of the onset of the rainy season.
Felix Suico, who heads the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (CDRRMO), said the victims will stay inside the “stock room” or the “relief goods area” of CICC at the ground floor which can accommodate 1,500 persons.
“It’s safer in the stock room. We cannot bring the evacuees inside the building since it is still in bad shape after the earthquake,” Suico said.
He clarified that the victims will only stay inside the stock room until the rains stop.
“If there is heavy rain and strong winds they can stay in the CICC stock room,” Suico said.
Six CDRRMO personnel are on standby at the CICC and ambulances and fire trucks are ready to provide water.
Suico said the CICC’s drainage got clogged because some of the fire victims throw their garbage there.
Meanwhile, Mandaue City Public Information officer Roger Paller said the city saved P5.4 million after construction firms PB Obial Construction and Devlarn Construction donated filling materials for development of the two-hectare fire site.
Backfiling began last Friday and covered 1,000 square meters.
AS Fortuna and a part of W.O. Seno Street are closed from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for the backfilling.
Last Friday, the urban poor settlers under the Federation of Mandaue City Urban Poor Inc. (Fedmacupi) filed a temporary restraining order against the backfilling.
But the city government continued with the backfiling which was part of the reblocking of the fire site.