Thursday, September 04, 2008 Espinoza: Clean street and Lapu-Lapu shanties By Elias L. Espinoza Free Zone
M.L. Quezon Ave., Lapu-Lapu City’s major thoroughfare, is being spruced up like the city is preparing for a celebration. It’s clean, tidy, and impressive.
After my hearing at the Regional Trial Court last Monday, I saw workers covering with debris the “pond” in front of City Hall.
Mayor Boy Radaza and his officials deserve credit for this. I haven’t seen cleaners, though, in the city’s minor streets.
Media’s constant bashing of the city’s unsanitary state and the harsh criticisms hurled by businessman Efrain Pelaez, Jr. must have moved city officials.
But a Radaza critic thinks otherwise. The cleaning and beautification of the main road, the critic said, is just a show-off because the other streets of the city are still untidy.
Others say the M.L. Quezon Ave. cleanup is only meant to provide jobs to Radaza’s supporters and is part of the preparations for the 2010 polls.
The mayor’s term ends in 2010. The rumor is that his wife, Mactan Barangay Captain Paz, will run in his stead.
With this, I don’ think Mayor Radaza would order the demolition of the 161 houses of informal settlers on the shores of Mactan.
Seventy-seven of these shanties are in Sitio Sasca, 49 are at the back of Bigfoot, 26 are behind Sutukil restaurant, and nine are at the back of the Lapu-Lapu shrine.
The City’s Urban Poor Office already declared the construction of these shanties as illegal. Vice Mayor Mario Amores said the ball is now with the city mayor.
Paz was quoted as saying that the houses dirtied the shores of the city and their presence exuded stinking odor.
Due to lack of proper sanitation, the occupants of these illegal structures just throw their garbage, including human waste, into the sea during high tide.
Paz is right. The unsanitary practices of the illegal settlers endanger the health of the people and affect the cleanliness of the restaurants in the area.
Executive Order 708 authorizes local government units to demolish illegal structures in public or private lots.
Mayor Radaza should consider more the health of majority of his constituents than the rights, if any, of a few illegal settlers who are contaminating the shores.
He should be reminded that the 2010 elections are still more than a year away.
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A painting of Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes and Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna shaking hands was one of the entries of a painting contest during the celebration of the city’s anniversary.
Although that entry did not win a prize, the student who painted it expressed well his concern over the endless squabbling among city officials.
But Mayor Cortes and Vice Mayor Fortuna did shake hands and were seated beside each other at the program during the celebration.
Fortuna even announced in his speech that the City Council already approved the appropriation for the wages of “job order” employees.
But Cortes still doubted Fortuna’s show of civility during the program. He opined that his conflict with the opposition-dominated legislative body will soon resume.
Their differences are reconcilable. If Mayor Cortes were sincere, all that he could have done was find out the causes of their problems, which are just around him, and put an end to them.
