Sunday, August 19, 2007 Squatters need to give way to ramp construction
THE Cebu City Government gave Young Builders Corp. and squatters at the Carbon Public Market Unit 2 until Thursday to vacate the area for WT Construction to start building the City’s P135-million ramp.
Instead of reconstructing the Unit 2 building in Carbon market, which was razed by fire in 1998, Mayor Tomas Osmeña had decided to build a ramp that can be used by vehicles to reach M.C. Briones and decongest traffic on Quezon Blvd.
The ramp is part of the viaduct section of the Cebu South Coastal Road.
Osmeña had said the space below the ramp will be used as vending site for displaced stallholders in Unit 2.
The ramp will be built from F. Escaño to F. Gonzales St.
Notices sent
But WT still has to begin civil works at the site because Young Builders built a fence and refused to allow entry to the area until the City pays an additional P6 million, further delaying the ramp’s construction.
Young Builders demanded the amount as payment for additional work not covered by the contract, but the City initially refused because of unauthorized variation orders and lack of building permit.
City Treasurer Tessie Camarillo yesterday said notices have already been sent and that WT is already preparing to start the construction.
In a separate interview, City Market Administrator Rachel Arce said Young Builders and the squatters were given 10 days starting last Monday to leave the site, which will serve as relocation for over 600 ambulant vendors who will be displaced once construction starts.
Unit 2 stallholders who occupied Unit 2 before the fire currently sell in modular stalls on M. C. Briones St.
Arce said it is Ermita Barangay Captain Felicisimo Rupinta’s task to clear the area of squatters and Young Builders’ equipment.
Expulsion
After that the market authority will bulldoze and level the land for ambulant vendors.
WT will fence off the construction site, further displacing a few Unit 3 and Unit 2 vendors, who will be moved a few meters from their stalls.
Arce said they already met members of at least six vendor organizations last Wednesday to inform them of the situation.
She said they will have to wait first for Rupinta to expel the squatters before they could transfer ambulant vendors to the area that Young Builders fenced off.
She assured, though, that M. L. Quezon St. will not be closed off so that there will still be an access road for Sitio Bato, Ermita.
Also, in a meeting with market authority officials last Thursday, Mayor Tomas Osmeña said he wanted the Warwick-Barracks block in Carbon cleared soon.
The area, which is next to what used to be the Freedom Park, is now home to illegal settlers. The mayor said the law must be followed.
He said this after the market authority asked him for “policy direction” on how to deal with settlers who made the stalls their living quarters. (RHM)
