PAJO, Lapu-Lapu City Barangay Captain Junard Chan will allow informal settlers to rebuild their homes that were gutted by fire even though these were located within the three-meter easement from the shore in Sitio Kitchen.
This, despite Mayor Paz Radaza’s order.
“If she won’t allow them to return, does she have a relocation site to offer them?” Chan asked in Cebuano.
He assured his constituents who were affected by the fire that he has their backs.
He wondered what the City Government did with money it set aside for socialized housing.
“The problem of informal settlers living on the coasts can be solved with socialized housing,” Chan added in Cebuano.
Chan is running for mayor against Arturo Radaza, the mayor's husband, in next year’s mid-term elections.
The mayor, who distributed relief goods from the Social Welfare Office to the more than 50 families who lost their homes to the fire on Sunday, Nov. 11, had pointed out that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources prohibits habitation on the shore.
Earlier this year, the City ordered the demolition of structures that were standing on the water in Barangays Ibo, Pusok and Mactan after it was discovered that the level of fecal coliform in the water of these three coastal barangays was high.
Radaza has said she is open to the idea of building a fence that will serve as a boundary of where the people can build their houses.
“Naa silay (Do they have a) fencing permit? Moagi man na sa barangay (That’s the barangay’s jurisdiction),” Chan said. (from FVQ of SuperBalita Cebu)