A proposed ordinance that would protect public funds allocated for the acquistion and development of relocation sites should be given top priority by the Cebu City government.
If Mayor Michael Rama is bent on driving out settlers from creeks and danger zones, this is one program he can’t delay.
The author, Councilor Alvin Dizon, who advocates the interests of the urban poor, crossed swords with the mayor over the fate of the Mahiga Creek settlers three years ago.
In fact, Dizon’s pointed confrontation with Rama led the mayor to break ties with the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK), whose constituents included settlers like the Mahiga Creek occupants.
So far the mayor has proposed a condominium housing project for the settlers.
But the relocation site has failed to attract settlers because it’s from their jobs and schools for their children.
The mountain site in barangay Budlaan is so steep, the place which has no electric power or water supply is no place to set up a new community.
Relocating settlers is not a matter of brute force or legal bludgeoning which presumes they are the enemy. No relocation program can succeed without a well thought-out plan for urban poor housing.
Marikina in Metro Manila was able to reclaim its river and watershed by having a resettlement site ready.
Mandaue City is about to start clearing its side of the Mahiga Creek, confident that it already has a site in barangay Paknaan and mechanics for low-cost housing in place.
What about Cebu City?
Dizon’s proposed ordinance to institutionalize the funding of P100 million for site development and P50 million in the city’s annual budget is an apparent reaction to budget gymnastics.
Realignments in the city budget, made necessary to shore up cash flow difficulties in City Hall, have left the urban poor housing program with an empty bag.
Priorities have to be made clear.
Do we want to solve the problem of urban flooding with an aggressive transfer of people and settlements from the banks of the city’s five rivers?
Then we better have a program in place to resettle them or end up just transferring the problem to another space.
The ordinance would at least help avoid the shuffling of funds that have marked Rama’s administration from day one.
It would impose some fiscal discipline and provide more than verbal assurance to displaced families that the city is looking at them, not just as vote getters during an election, but as constituents with basic needs to be served.
But where is the housing program to catch the thousands s the Rama administration had were limited mostly to planning and proposals, and mostly on clearing structures within the three-meter easement zone.
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