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Friday, August 04, 2006
Council to name 2 sitios as calamity areas
Members of the Cebu City Council will meet today in a special session to declare Sitios Tangke 2 and Lawis in Barangay Mambaling under state of calamity following Tuesday night’s fire.
There is no session this week but the affected residents need immediate help from the City.
The declaration is needed so the City Government can access its calamity funds to purchase food and materials for the 500 families left homeless by the blaze.
City Councilor Gerardo Carillo, chairman of the committee on social services, asked for the holding of a special session because waiting for next week’s session will mean delaying help for the victims, who are temporarily sheltered in a sports complex and a school.
Also, Barangay Captain Rodolfo Estella reported that residents who were not fire victims tried to ask for assistance.
Social workers
That was why it took some time for social workers to come up with a list because they counterchecked the identities of those lining up to receive relief items.
“Those who are not victims of the fire also line up. We have to check them,” Estella said.
Carillo said looting and residents pretending to victims are normal, because there are really people who like to take advantage of others, even those who are in distress.
Aside from giving canned goods, City Hall will also distribute housing materials to the victims.
City Administrator Francisco Fernandez said the tearing down of 28 houses in Mambaling last Monday was part of efforts to spruce up the South Road Properties (SRP).
The structures along the Mambaling access road are near the SRP and the fire site.
But, he said, the families were compensated and what happened was not a forcible eviction but voluntary demolition by the owners.
Each family received either P10,000 or P5,000 plus a relocation site as disturbance compensation.
Tangke 2 and Lawis are squatter areas where people live mostly in shanties made of light materials.
Fernandez said the City Government will allow the victims to rebuild their homes. (RHM)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 4, 2006 issue)
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