THE Office of the Building Official (OBO) has found more structures in Cebu City that obstruct waterways.

As of Monday, Dec. 28, 2020, it identified 281 violators of the three-meter easement along creeks and rivers, up from 207 structures it identified last month, said OBO head Florante Catalan.

On top of that, Catalan said Barangays Hipodromo and Sambag 2 submitted a list of potential violators in their respective barangays.

Barangay Hipodromo found six structures obstructing the waterway, while Barangay Sambag 2 found 165 structures.

Catalan said they’ve forwarded the list to the task force led by the Department of Engineering and Public Works to deal with the matter.

He said owners of the structures will be informed about their violation and will be given time to remove the obstructions.

If they refuse to heed the order, the City will be forced to demolish their structures, he said.

Catalan said they had to suspend the inspection of establishments and residential structures near or along waterways due to the lack of manpower and poor weather condition.

Catalan said some members of the technical team had also been assigned to help distribute financial assistance to senior citizens.

“Because of intermittent weather condition, our office is constrained to cancel creek inspection at this time,” he said.

Catalan hopes to resume inspection in the first week of January 2021. (JJL)