Thursday, August 30, 2007 Mayor orders filling of breakwater to serve as site for evicted Carbon Unit 2 occupants
FIRE victims staying at the Carbon public market Unit 2 could be relocated soon, as Mayor Tomas Osmeña yesterday ordered the immediate filling up of the breakwater that borders Barangay Ermita and the South Road Properties (SRP) viaduct.
“Never mind waiting for the permits. Fill it up. The permits could follow,” the mayor said to City Administrator Francisco Fernandez.
He issued the order after being told that the market authority has started clearing Unit 2 for the construction of a multi-million-peso market ramp.
Yesterday, Market Administrator Raquel Arce and the city market police breached the fence of Young Builders Corp. They started leveling off mounds and filling up excavations left by the company in Unit 2.
After almost a decade of waiting, Unit 2 stallholders and vendors displaced by a 1998 fire can now look forward to having a proper area to sell their goods.
But the move will also displace 40 to 50 families staying in Unit 2 who have nowhere else to stay.
A fire last May 8 forced them out of the breakwater where they built their homes on stilts and into Unit 2 after Young Builders’ fence was damaged.
Young Builders built the fence when the City refused to pay P6 million as additional payment for a P22-million contract by the previous administration to rebuild Unit 2.
Ramp
Osmeña later decided to build a P135-million ramp so motorists can use it to go through M.C. Briones and clear Quezon Blvd. of vehicular traffic.
When the City conducted the bidding for 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 of the fence, delaying the ramp’s construction.
The City recently rescinded its contract with Young Builders and issued notices for it to vacate Unit 2.
After fire ravaged two Ermita sitios last May, the victims occupied Unit 2.
They appealed for the mayor to realize that they have nowhere to go since they are not allowed to return to the breakwater, as the barangay intends to reclaim it.
Also, the City has not given them construction materials because of the reclamation project.
Some also asked why the market authority started clearing Unit 2 when Ermita Barangay Captain Felicisimo Rupinta has given them until tomorrow to vacate the area.
Interviewed by Sun.Star while supervising the market police, Arce considered Rupinta’s promise to the squatters and demolished only a few structures blocking the path of the payloader they used.
Market Police Chief Jun Dacayana said modular stalls occupied by sidewalk vendors, particularly along M. L. Quezon Ave., will be demolished for the ramp.
The displaced vendors will be transferred to Unit 2, hence the need for the squatters to leave. Affected Unit 3 vendors will also be temporarily relocated to Unit 2.
Rupinta thanked Osmeña for the decision, saying he was also in a quandary on where to place the fire victims.
Julieto, 48, does not know where he would live once his ramshackle shelter is torn down.
Another occupant said that if they only have a place to live, they would even volunteer to dismantle their makeshift structures.
Although grumbling, however, they obeyed by removing their meager possessions and transferring them elsewhere.
Others still managed to joke about their plight, though, with one saying they better hurry up packing since they are going to Hawaii. (RHM)
