IF LITA Lita Ubas were to ask for a Christmas gift, it would be the lot award certificate she has been wanting to receive from the Cebu City Government for the past 30 years.
Having only enough to support her family’s daily needs, the 58-year-old urban poor settler of Barangay Apas has been waiting for the day the City transfers the ownership of her home lot since her child, now 34, was born.
“Although the proclamation is already there, we have yet to be awarded with the lots. It’s difficult to sleep at night with the thought that any day now, we could be asked to vacate the area,” she told Sun.Star Cebu in Cebuano.
Emeterio Canilon Jr. shared the same wish with Ubas, saying that to receive the certificate of title he, too, has been asking for the past three decades, would be the best gift he could ever get in this lifetime.
“Only then can my family and I truly be happy. I’ve been waiting for many years and as long as the City cares for the poor, I won’t lose hope,” the 56-year-old resident of Barangay Mabolo said in a separate interview.
While their presents may take time to arrive, Mayor Tomas Osmeña yesterday assured about 6,000 individuals who joined the City Government’s Urban Poor Solidarity celebration that the poor will not be overlooked in his administration.
In his message, the mayor said the poor, elderly and the youth will be provided with better programs and services in his term.
“The senior citizens and the youth are my priority. Helping the poor is our thrust and they will not be neglected in this administration,” he said.
The mayor is set to sign the implementing rules and regulations of the slum improvement resettlement project.
Division of Welfare for the Urban Poor (DWUP) officer-in-charge Genevieve Alcoseba, in an interview, explained that the signing signifies the granting of lots to urban poor settlers in Barangays Suba, Pasil, Sawang Calero and Alaska Mambaling.
She identified the barangays as the southern counterpart of the 93-1 lots in the north district.
Aside from this, the City will award on Monday lot certificates to six urban groups from Ermita, Kamagayan, and Basak.
“We will also distribute the transfer certificate of title to (the) Bliss Homeowners Association. This is just the start. We’ll be awarding more, hopefully, in the near future,” Alcoseba said.
The City Government and the Provincial Government are also set to close the land swap agreement for the 93-1 lots on Wednesday at the Plaza Sugbo.
The exchange, which was first proposed more than 10 years ago, would free the Province from a collection problem and give it some commercial properties.