BEING one of the first few families to build their houses in the area some 40 years ago, Vitaliana Mabano admitted that it will be hard to say goodbye to their homes in Sitio Langob, Barangay Sirao in Cebu City.
The barangay has been identified as a high-risk, landslide-prone area by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau 7 after it found that tension cracks have formed within the mountains surrounding the barangay.
This prompted the City Government to advise close to 40 residents of the area to voluntarily vacate their homes given the continued ground movement.
Mabano told SunStar Cebu that they’ve never experienced such an ordeal until the heavy downpour last January, which destroyed more than a hundred houses in Sirao.
“I am really saddened because we’ve been living peacefully all these years. But now, the quiet days are filled with dread because we can feel the ground shaking every now and then,” she said.
With her house flooded by water brought about the tension cracks and her store nearly covered with soil due to a recent landslide, the 71-year-old decided to leave her home for safer grounds.
For the past five months, Mabano has been walking three kilometers a day to sleep in her son’s house at night in the neighboring Barangay Guba. During the day, she checks on the flowers in her garden back in Sirao.
She said because of the continued ground movement, she had to close her store, which helped her earn P2,000 a day to buy her maintenance medicine.
In a separate interview, Nagiel Bañacia City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office chief, said he will propose giving calamity assistance to the affected families to the executive department.
“We have funds under the disaster and calamity fund, but we have to study the situation,” he said.
He explained that unlike the aid for fire victims, landslide assistance should be comprehensively planned as there are more factors to consider apart from their residential conditions.
In the meantime, the City will pave an alternative route connecting the sitio to Barangay Pulangbato to ensure public safety.