Wednesday, August 29, 2007 Young Builders ignores notice to vacate Unit 2 of Carbon public market By Rene H. Martel Sun.Star Staff Reporter
THE eviction of about 50 families illegally living in Carbon public market’s Unit 2 did not push through yesterday after the Young Builders Corp. reinforced its fence instead of heeding a notice to vacate issued by the Cebu City Government.
After an emergency meeting yesterday afternoon, City Administrator Francisco Fernandez and members of the City Market Authority agreed the fence will be forced open this morning.
Ermita Barangay Captain Felicisimo Rupinta, who was tasked to remove the families last Thursday yet, will be the one to destroy the fence.
“We will take over (today),” Fernandez said.
City Treasurer Tessie Camarillo, Market Administrator Raquel Arce, and City legal officers attended the meeting.
Young Builders fenced off Unit 2 after the City refused to pay P6 million as additional payment for a P22-million contract by the previous administration to rebuild the building, which burned down in 1998.
Later, instead of reconstructing Unit 2, Mayor Tomas Osmeña decided to have a P135-million ramp built so motorists can use it to go through M.C. Briones and clear Quezon Blvd. of vehicular traffic.
When the City bid out the ramp two years ago, WT won and was awarded the P135-million contract.
But WT still has to begin civil works at the site because Young Builders built a fence and refused to allow entry until the City pays the P6 million.
The City recently rescinded its contract with Young Builders and issued it notices to vacate Unit 2.
After fire ravaged two Ermita sitios last May that also damaged a portion of the fence Young Builders built, victims occupied Unit 2.
In a separate interview yesterday, Arce said they will prepare earth-moving equipment to immediately clear and level off the lot once the squatters are already driven out.
The City intended to use the Unit 2 lot as relocation for over 600 sidewalk vendors who will be displaced by the construction of the multi-million-peso ramp.
Also, Arce said she will ask Mayor Tomas Osmeña that they push through with the demolition of illegal Warwick-Barracks structures in Carbon only when there is already a budget for the immediate use of the area.
This way, she said, they will not have to cordon off the cleared area for a long time, with the squatters possibly creeping back again.
Warwick-Barracks, the block of stalls next to the former Freedom Park, has become living quarters of more than 420 squatter families.
Arce suggested that the City use the area as a gathering place for farm produce brought to Carbon by constructing an open structure with roofs.
She said that while there are those who religiously pay their rentals to the City, most of the Warwick-Barracks occupants were delinquent in settling their dues.
The market authority cannot also just close several structures, aside from the stalls, because it was not the City that built them.
Arce said those who have zealously paid stall rentals will be allowed to return once the City clears Warwick-Barracks and put up another building.
