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Thursday, May 08, 2003
Condo use v. Sars blocked
By Linette C. Ramos/Charmaine Y. Rodriguez
PLANS to use the Cebu City Government owned condominium along N. Bacalso Ave. as an isolation unit for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) patients are meeting stiff resistance.
At least five occupants of the condominium said it is impossible to proceed with the conversion, especially since many children and infants live in the vicinity.
The building is also a few meters away from a school and is surrounded by densely populated neighborhood, they said.
Yet despite Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s announcement to rid the condominium of tenants, the Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor (DWUP) has asked occupants to sign contracts of lease.
The development surprised the mayor, who ordered Public Information Officer Nagiel Bañacia to ask Bimbo Fernandez, the mayor’s consultant on poverty reduction, regarding the matter.
Osmeña, who wants to convert the building into an extension of the City-run hospital, suspected that some “people” from DWUP are trying to get some “deals” with occupants.
He warned that “no contract is valid without the approval of the City Government.”
Varied reactions
The mayor’s plan has elicited varied reactions from occupants, ranging from incredulity to resignation.
“How can you convert the building into an isolation unit when there are people everywhere? And what does he (Osmeña) really want? Turn the condominium into an isolation area, a police station or a day care center? You can’t have children in a day care center and Sars patients in the same building,” one of the occupants, who asked not be named, said in Cebuano. (The mayor also reportedly plans to put up a police station and a day care center inside the five-story building.)
He said the mayor is only using the Sars issue to evict occupants because he reportedly wants to privatize the condominium.
“It’s apparent politics is behind it. Why would he pick this place when everybody knows the area is not very clean?” he told Sun.Star in Cebuano.
The occupants said the original lease contract was a rent-to-own agreement, but the City Government now wants them to lease the units for a monthly fee.
Councilor Gerardo Carillo, chairman of the committee on social services, said DWUP is merely implementing a resolution, approved by the City Council last December that directed the office to collect rent from qualified beneficiaries living in the condominium.
(Rental starts at P4,500 for first floor units while units on the fifth floor cost P2,500 a month. There’s a P500 difference every floor.)
But with the mayor’s recent announcement, Carillo said he will have to discuss the matter with Osmeña and the council.
Aside from the prospect of eviction, the occupants will also need to seek legal assistance to claim the 10 percent equity they paid the City.
“They have to sue us for it. What, you give a deposit and you get free rent for three years?” the mayor said.
Some of the occupants have already accepted the hand that fate dealt them.
“But I doubt the mayor would intentionally come up with a plan to ruin our lives,” said Nellie Birao, one of the occupants.
“Although if Osmeña is really bent on using the building as an isolation facility for Sars patients, we are powerless to stop him,” another occupant said in Cebuano.
Local health officials said isolation areas for Sars patients must be sanitary, well ventilated and must fit the criteria of the World Health Organization.
However, when Sun.Star visited the condominium yesterday, garbage was everywhere and murky water lay stagnant in some areas near the structure.
The City Council has approved another resolution appropriating P500,000 for the fight against Sars, in addition to the two resolutions appropriating P376,000 and P5 million to address the problem.
Opposition Councilor Carmelita Piramide questioned the need to set aside the amount, as proposed by Councilor Christopher Alix.
Carillo, for his part, admitted that the Cebu City Disaster Coordinating Council is still “in a quandary” how to use the P5-million appropriation. He said disaster council will meet today to come up with guidelines.
Alix, chairman of the committee on health, said the P500,000 will be for additional medicines and medical supplies as well as printed materials for the information education campaign as instructed by the Department of Interior and Local Government.
(May 8, 2003 issue)
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