Monday, October 09, 2006 P9.5M for relocation okayed
THE Cebu City Council gave 163 families and thousands of motorists a break after it approved last week a resolution setting aside P9.53 million for a relocation site and for road right-of-way (RROW) acquisition.
Councilor Jose Daluz III said the amount will be taken from the fifth supplemental budget, which will be sourced from the balance of the P173.8 million the Gokongweis paid for the City’s 46,345-square-meter property at the North Reclamation Area.
The Gokongweis, he said, already paid P100 million.
The council specifically allocated P4.41 million for the Salutillo family’s property in Barangay Tisa, where squatters in Sitios Caduloy, Lutaw-lutaw, Sambag II and Mangga will be relocated.
Daluz, chairman of the council committee on real property management, said, in an interview, that the 163 families had long lived in fear.
Owners of the lot they illegally occupied either threatened to demolish their homes or prevented the re-building of their houses after a fire.
In one instance, the owners allegedly threw stones and garbage at their homes just to force them out. Most of the occupants already have demolition orders issued by the courts.
Engineer Danilo Gabiana of the City’s Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor reported that the residents “need help in terms of facilitating their transfer and even their relocation.”
Project
The same council resolution also appropriated P1.53 million as payment to the Binghay family in Barangay Guadalupe, whom Daluz said owns the property serving as the approach to a bridge connecting the barangay to Lahug.
The bridge forms part of a P200-million road project funded by the National Government to ease traffic in the uptown area.
From the Guadalupe Barangay Hall, the new access road will traverse Barangays Kalunasan and Camputhaw before reaching Lahug, just outside the University of the Philippines Cebu College campus.
Daluz said that although others donated their lots affected by the project, the Binghays offered to sell 1,023 square meters of their property for P3.069 million.
As agreed, the City will pay half of the amount upon the signing of the memorandum of agreement. The other half will be paid once the property is already under the City’s name.
The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has completed one-third of the project until the construction stopped in 2003 because of the lack of funds.
And to widen the road opening of Katipunan St. to V. Rama Ave., the City Council set aside P3.59 million to pay the heirs of Wilfredo Saceda for their 1,304-square-meter lot.
Daluz said they foresee better traffic flow once the property is purchased and the structures demolished, so the access road could be constructed. (RHM)
