Relocate 72 Tejero families displaced by road project

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

A CEBU City councilor urged Mayor Michael Rama to provide a relocation site for the 72 families who stand to be evicted from the City-owned lot they are occupying in Barangay Tejero.

Councilor Alvin Dizon said the families from Tejero should not be treated differently from the families who were also displaced by a road restoration project in Barangay T. Padilla earlier this year.

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If the City was able to provide a relocation site and financial assistance to the families who were displaced by a road restoration project on T. Villa and F. Villa St. in T. Padilla, it should also be able to extend the same assistance to the families in Tejero, Dizon said.

But 15 days before the scheduled eviction of the families in Tejero, the City has yet to give them financial aid and has not identified a relocation site yet.

“In principle, I am supportive of the road restoration and reblocking, especially in interior areas in barangays that are prone to fires so fire trucks can pass through easily. But the need for access roads should be balanced with the need to protect the interest of our residents,” he told Sun.Star Cebu.

He recalled that when the City reblocked and restored T. Villa and F. Villa roads in Tejero, the families who were displaced were allowed to occupy other vacant properties in the area.

“In this case in Tejero, walay klaro asa ang relocation. I will lobby with the mayor to provide the families with a relocation site, to be consistent with our stand that whoever gets affected by the City’s development projects should be assisted properly,” Dizon lamented.

Today, the Squatters Prevention, Elimination and Encroachment Division (Speed) is scheduled to deliver to the 72 families in Tejero the final notice to vacate the lot they are occupying.

Their houses will have to be removed to make way for the widening of U. Alviola St., an interior road in Tejero, so fire trucks and ambulances can access the area during a fire and other emergency situations.

Speed Chief Noel Artes said they will be given 15 days to vacate.

He admitted the City still has not given the families the standard financial aid of P5,000 for those whose houses will be partially demolished and P10,000 for those whose houses will be totally demolished. The relocation site also has not been identified
yet.

“The City should provide them with a relocation site because it’s mandated under the law. We will find a relocation site for them but I also told them it might be easier if they themselves will identify the relocation site,” Artes said in an interview yesterday.

During a meeting with the affected families last Monday night, Artes explained to them why they need to vacate the lot they are occupying. He also informed them that his office will issue the final notice to vacate today.

“They said they will ask the mayor for reconsideration, to put off the demolition until after the holidays so we will wait for that,” he added.