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A LITTLE over a year has passed since the March 7, 2007 fire that hit barangay Mantuyong, Mandaue City, and destroyed at least 400 homes, yet around 2000 families who were victims of the incident are still living in makeshift homes.
After the fire, majority of the beneficiaries have rebuilt their homes while some of the ?renters,? survivors of the fire, continue living in tents and makeshift houses.
The ?renters? were the families that own neither a house nor lot in the area when the fire broke out last year.
They rented space from beneficiaries of government-donated lots.
To Evangeline Dagasdas, 50, and Nelia Borja, 52, surviving means trying to make ends meet with the money they earn in their separate sari-sari stores which earn less that P100 per day in their neighborhood with houses made up of tents, tarpaulins, sacks and small pieces of plywood and galvanized iron sheets.
Dagasdas said she tries to stretch the daily earnings to buy three square meals for her family of four and pay for their daily drinking water consumption which they fetch from a faraway neighbor.
Borja also tries to squeeze whatever value she could get from her income to feed her family.
Among their fastest-selling goods are rubber fuel, tiny strips of rubber from torn slippers and other waste material from rubber factories which are repacked as cheap alternative cooking fuel.
These rubber packs, sold for P1 each, are cheaper than wood and charcoal fuel, which makes it a hit among their neighbors, who do not seem to be aware of the environmental hazards that burning rubber brings.
Both their husbands do odd jobs to add to their daily household income.
Dagasdas and Borja said their sari-sari stores are already an ?edge? over their neighbors that can provide them a meal of rice, fish and vegetables or rice, ginamos and vegetables.
The Dagasdas and the Borjas were among the ?renters? in the Mantuyong fire that destroyed two densely-populated barangays.
The beneficiaries are the original settlers in the 9.4-hectare government-donated lot in barangay Mantuyong, Centro, Guizo, Tipolo, and Subangdaku, which were given during the time of then Mayor Alfredo ?Pedong? Ouano.
The renters, because of the temporary nature of their living condition, have the threat of being driven out of their settlement site hanging over their heads.
Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna said there are no specific plans for the renters yet, as far as the City Council is concerned.
?Development should also be private-sector driven because the government cannot sustain the community facilities,? Fortuna said.
He said the renters are also not members of the housing association created in 1992.
?If we address the housing needs of everybody, that would be close to impossible (to achieve),? said the vice mayor.
City Administrator Briccio Joseph Boholst said that the city government is looking at two options: the possible development of the Mantuyong area for the beneficiaries or relocation of the beneficiaries to a much better location in another government lot.
Boholst said the renters will not be among those who will be accommodated in the city?s housing projects.
