THE Mandaue City government plans to relocate all informal settler families (ISF) currently occupying the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) by the end of April 2024.
This is as the City Government will initiate construction of a one-stop-shop government center eyed to replace the CICC.
The City Government plans to transfer the ISF to temporary shelters in Barangay Guizo.
August Lizer Malate, executive assistant head of the Mayor’s Management Team and the City’s Business Permit and Licensing Office (BPLO), in a media interview on Tuesday, April 2, said the City has prepared over 300 temporary housing units in Barangay Guizo to relocate the families occupying the CICC.
The housing units are located across the CICC called “Pasilong Para sa Paradise.”
Around 500 families displaced in fires in Barangay Guizo in 2016 and Sitios Basubas and Maharlika in Barangay Tipolo in 2019 are currently taking shelter at the CICC.
Malate said the City is currently preparing the housing utilities, such as water supply and electricity connection to facilitate the transfer of its beneficiaries by the end of April.
He said the City aims to hold a groundbreaking ceremony for the government center in April as well.
The Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and Mandaue City signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) on March 5 to borrow P3 billion for infrastructure projects, including the One-Stop-Shop government center.
Under the MOA, Mandaue will repay the amount in staggered payments over 15 years.
Malate said DBP will grant the City a grace period before Mandaue begins making payments, although the exact duration of this grace period has not been specified.
Pasilong Para sa Paradise
The Pasilong Para sa Paradise is a collaborative effort between the Mandaue City Government and the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI).
It aims to provide temporary shelter to families that have been recently affected by several fires, including the approximately 700 families displaced by the fire in Sitio Paradise in Barangay Looc in 2022.
Malate said the temporary housing facility will comprise at least 25 blocks, each consisting of 24 housing units. Each housing unit has an area of about 20 square meters.
He clarified that beneficiaries of these shelters would be responsible only for their electric and water bills.
More temporary housing
Meanwhile, Malate said the City plans to build additional temporary housing facilities for around 500 families displaced by the fire that hit Sitio Under the Bridge in Barangay Looc on March 12.
The new relocation site will be located in Looc, next to the University of Cebu Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue (UCLM) Campus, along the road leading to Barangay Opao called Sitio Riverside.
Mayor Jonas Cortes previously said the City aims to relocate the fire victims to their temporary shelters this week.
According to Malate, all beneficiaries in the temporary housing units will eventually be transferred to Tipolo Residences in Sitio Maharlika in Barangay Tipolo, a socialized housing project by the City, contractor Cebu Landmasters Inc. (CLI) and the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) under the Pambansang Pabahay para sa Pilipino Program of the administration of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., and other stakeholders.
Tipolo Residences
In January 2023, the City announced that around 194 families would relocate to their new homes at the Tipolo Residences upon the completion of the first two buildings in October of the same year.
However, Johnbee Biton, head of the City’s Housing and Urban Development Office, said the first two buildings of the five-building project might not be ready for occupancy by then and will be postponed to May 2024.
He cited the delay in the construction of the buildings as the reason for the postponement.
City Administrator James Jamaal Calipayan, in a separate interview, said the project site had to be elevated first since the area is low-lying and flood-prone. / HIC