Additional aid for displaced settlers

RESIDENTS who will voluntarily tear down their houses or have already done son amid a court-ordered demolition in Barangay Luz will receive additional cash aid from the three homeowners’ associations in the area.

The financial assistance, according to City Councilor Nida Cabrera, president of the Nangka Homeowners’ Association, will be more than or equal the P10,000 that the Cebu City Government promised to give the affected families.

Amount

In her sitio, volunteers will receive P15,000, she said. Their counterparts in Sitios Lubi and Mabuhay will receive P10,000 from their respective homeowners’ associations.

Some 32 families are affected by the demolition ordered by the Regional Trial Court Branch 11. They include nine families in Sitio Mabuhay, 17 in Sitio Lubi and nine in Sitio Nangka.

The nine structures in Mabuhay were already demolished last Monday. Cabrera said majority of their owners volunteered to tear down their houses.

In Nangka, all six families also volunteered to tear down their houses. Cabrera said the area will be cleared by Monday.

However, Cabrera said she doubts the affected families in Sitio Lubi will avail themselves of the financial assistance.

Change of heart

“Ang Lubi maoy problema kay naa man gyuy resistance sa ila (It will be problem in Lubi because the affected residents there are resisting the demolition),” she said.

The councilor, however, hopes the families will have a change of heart.

She said providing additional assistance to the affected families was part of the agreement before the court ruled that the 32 families cannot own, buy, or posses the current lots they occupy.