Creek settlers pick up the pieces

Rather than witness the demolition of their shanties, settlers of Mahiga Creek chose to do the job themselves a day ahead of schedule last Tuesday.

But last Wednesday came and the Mahiga Creek settlers were told that the Squatters Prevention Elimination and Encroachment Division (Speed), for one reason or another, will defer the demolition at an undisclosed date.
Now the settlers are faced with the problem of securing whatever materials remained of their once humble homes and transporting them to another site where they can build anew.

Settlers like Constancia Miego and her neighbor Belen Martinez are left wondering how to transport the remains of their home to another site.

They asked for the assistance that Cebu City Hall promised for those who voluntarily demolished their homes, but none came.
The 72-year-old Miego and her sickly husband planned to use the remains of their shanty in sitio San Isidro, barangay Mabolo near the creek to build an extension to the home of their daughter in Consolacion town.

But they don’t have the money to transport their materials and no one from Cebu City Hall came to their area to check on them despite the series of assurances promised by Mayor Michael Rama and other officials in previous meetings.

“They’re just good at making promises but not fulfilling them. We demolished our home so we can use the remains. But these officials, they ignore us and keep passing us around,” a teary-eyed Miego said.

The housing materials aren’t secure from thieves, she said.
“Instead of motivating the other settlers into demolishing their homes and looking elsewhere, now they want to stay put because there’s no vehicle to transport their housing materials,” Miego explained in Cebuano.

Belen Martinez said the city officials promised to provide vehicles for those who demolished their homes.

But she said they were passed around. “If we knew that this would happen, we would never have demolished our homes,” Martinez said.

Cebu City Councilor Alvin Dizon said there were lapses in coordination among the executive department that resulted to this problem. He said the Speed team should have talked with the settlers and facilitated their request for vehicles.

Dizon, who chaired the City Council Housing Committee and Urban Poor, said it should be the Departments for the Welfare of the Urban Poor (DWUP) and Engineering and Public Works (DEPW) that should help transport the materials.

“I am now volunteering through my staff that the residents can contact my office if they wish to have a transportation,” Dizon said.

He called on the barangay officials to send tanods to secure the materials taken down by the residents.