Tuesday, April 15, 2008 Floodwaters hit Guadalupe homes
TWELVE families in Barangay Guadalupe woke up yesterday dawn to find their things floating in six-foot deep muck after heavy rains washed mud and limestone from an uphill development project.
The incident prompted Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña to cancel the development permits of Monterrazas de Cebu, an upscale residential resort of Landco Pacific Corp. (Landco) in the mountain barangays.
All affected families in Sitio Dakit blamed the project for the flooding, saying their place never get flooded with limestone and mud before the construction.
Osmeña assured that City Hall would inspect the construction site and stop whatever activity caused soil to spill to the lowlands.
He immediately called the developer after hearing about the extent of damage to the houses to schedule an emergency meeting with its officials.
In an interview after his meeting with the mayor last night, City Councilor Gerardo Carillo said Osmeña gave instructions to cancel Landco’s development permits.
“I briefed him on the situation and I told him that even in the Monterrazas area, limestone has already spilled over to the side. So he ordered me to cancel the development permits until they (Landco) can rehabilitate the detention ponds, until the City is satisfied with their preventive measures,” Carillo told Sun.Star Cebu.
Only nine houses were completely submerged in floodwater, but 10 more stand on areas where water from the construction site flows.
At least three houses in a neighboring upscale subdivision were also affected.
Monterrazas de Cebu, whose development started in April 2007, spans four kilometers and 200 hectares of land covering portions of Barangays Guadalupe, Tisa, Labangon, Buhisan and Sapangdaku, all in Cebu City.
Carillo visited both the landslide site and the project’s periphery just before responding to another landslide in Sapangdaku.
No one was hurt in both incidents, but numerous home appliances were damaged.
Monterrazas de Cebu is a joint venture of the Villalon family, with one member a cousin of the mayor, and Landco, which is owned by his close childhood friend.
Osmeña recalled stopping the project last year after finding out it did not have the facilities to help prevent landslides and floods in the lowlands.
“It will be stopped, don’t worry. But we have to do an assessment first because we can’t just assume things. We also can’t stop the development, but we have to take measures. I thought that when they built the facility I required that was enough, but maybe they overlooked some areas,” he said.
The mayor also said the developer was diligent in complying with City Hall’s requirements for water retention facilities.
Landco inaugurated last February the first four of a series of detention ponds, with each designed to hold 2,000 to 3,000 cubic meters of rainwater.
But according to Guadalupe Barangay Captain Eugenio Faelnar, the facility has not been completed yet.
Landco representatives visited the landslide area yesterday and assured homeowners that they will adopt preventive measures to avoid a similar incident.
They also met with officials of each barangay and gave P100,000 to be used for basic commodities that the affected families will need. Each family was given an initial amount of P3,000.
The City Government also delivered food and water to them.
Landco Business Development Director Lormilo Galo and other officials admit the floodwater and limestone came from their project.
“We already have detention ponds within the development site, but when you pave roads in the mountains, it’s inevitable that there will be water and materials na dili masawo (that could not be contained). But since this already happened, we assure that we will help in coordinating with the barangay,” he told Sun.Star Cebu.
Galo pointed out, though, that the absence of a drainage system in Sitio Dakit aggravated the problem. (LCR)
