SWAT personnel secure the area where a demolition team took down nine houses in Sitio Tanke Alaska, Barangay Mambaling. (CDN PHOTO/ FERDINAND EDRALIN)
They may have lost their homes but settlers in Sitio Tanke, Barangay Mambaling in Cebu City are staying put in their area until a relocation site is provided for them by the city government.
A City Hall demolition team were delayed after they were unable to provide ID cards that the settlers asked them to produce when they arrived in the area yesterday morning.
Sheriff Edilberto Suarin and his team later produced the ID cards at 1 p.m. and showed them to the settlers, who eventually relented.
Suarin said nine houses were demolished yesterday.
He said they will continue to demolish the remaining 16 houses today.
Virginia Canoy, president of Sitio Tanke Home Owners Association (STHOA), said they will remain in the area to guard their belongings.
“Magtrapal na lang mi dinhi. Di mi mobiya sa among mga panimalay hangtod walay relocation (We will put up tarpaulins. We won’t leave our homes unless relocation will be provided),” Canoy told reporters yesterday.
Amancia Yburan, who has lived with her daughters in Sitio Tanke since 1967, said they will wait for relocation and financial assistance even if they would have to sleep on the pavement.
Yburan’s daughters and their families live together in one house.
Canoy and all residents called on Antonio Abellana, the claimant of the land, and the city government to give them a relocation site.
Cebu City Acting Mayor Margot Osmeña said the city government is not legally bound to give financial assistance and relocation since the lot is privately owned.
Osmeña issued a letter to Judge Pamela A. Baring-Uy, the presiding judge of Branch 6 Municipal Trial Courts in Cities, to postpone the demolition for six months to give way for the city government to look for a relocation site, but her request was denied.
The demolition was scheduled last June 27 but it was moved to yesterday due to bad weather./USJ-R Intern Dafne N. Wenceslao