Saturday, May 24, 2008 Idis seeks city help for slide-prone areas
THE environmental group Interface Development Interventions (Idis) expressed concern over the fate of residents in Davao City's flood and landslide-prone upland barangays with the incoming rainy season.
Lia Jasmin Esquillo, executive director of Idis, said that what worries them in particular are the residents of Barangay Carmen in Baguio District.
"They will again suffer from displacement and loss of property with the torrential rains threatening to trigger flashfloods and landslides," Esquillo said Friday.
Worse is that these incidents could even cost lives of people as what happened in other places of the country struck by this kind of calamity, she added.
In 2006, the villagers who are living in a sitio along the mountain slopes of Carmen had to abandon their houses due to a landslide.
This was followed by intense flood, which destroyed the water pipelines that supply water to the villages of Tawan-Tawan, Baguio, Cadalian and parts of Wines.
The terrain analysis of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) marked Carmen as moderately to highly susceptible to both landslide and soil erosion.
Since the 2006 incident, the villagers have been asking the City Government to provide them a safer relocation area but not far from Carmen where the source of their livelihood, which is farming, can be found, to no avail.
"We are sounding the alarm because we have seen how the lives of the people in the area were hanged and threatened by the absence of a good area where they can erect their houses. We are calling on the authorities to look into this and act appropriately before it is too late," Esquillo said.
She said erosion and flood areas -- slopes and by the rivers, particularly -- must be freed from residents to avoid disasters.
Esquillo also said that areas identified as critical must be off-limits for any major development that would trigger life-threatening incidents.
City Administrator Wendel Avisado, in an earlier interview, said the residents have been advised to transfer after their area was identified under those, which are critical, but this has not materialized.
The residents of Carmen, in the past, have asked the City Government to purchase a parcel of land that is within the Carmen area as it is where their source of livelihood is.
Avisado, however, said relocation for residents is only possible if they agree to be relocated to a city-owned property.
"Dili ma-afford sa city to buy a new property sa area kung asa nila gusto magpa-relocate. Dili man pud ibaligya sa tag-iya ang yuta nga ilang gusto balhinan (The city can't afford to buy a new property in the area want to be relocated in. The landowner doesn't want to sell)," Avisado said.
It was learned that residents of areas identified as slide-prone want the city to negotiate the sale of a farmland owned by the Sodaco in the area. The land, however, is fully planted with durian and is only being offered for sale at a fair market price for a farmland that has fruit-bearing trees.
Avisado said relocation processes will get through the City Housing Office and the decision for any relocation depends on the availability of the relocation site.
Avisado said all that the city could offer is the relocation site in Los Amigos, which is already government-owned.
Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has also ordered the reforestation in Barangay Carmen last year, saying the remaining trees of Carmen will have to be protected, adding that cutting trees in the area should be stopped.
"The whole area needs protection. Some areas of Carmen are still forested which I think really needs to be protected. The cleared areas must be planted with trees for us to avoid landslides and flood," he said.
Esquillo meantime urged the government to take a strong stand against the planned development of Shrine Hills into high-end villages considering its big threat to the safety of the people living down the hills.
Residents of Barangay Ma-a who are living in subdivisions below Shrine Hills have sent petitions to various government agencies to appeal for the stoppage of the development. (GLP)
