Beneficiaries await answers to the lack of water, electricity, safe roads
April 20, 2011
ARE we going to wait for the next elections for a road-right-of-way to be developed and additional three years to get electricity?
These are questions posed by residents of Upper Laguerta, Barangay Busay after they were relocated there by City Hall.
Their houses in Tophill, Lahug, where the Ecotech Center now stands, Sitio Atabay at the North Reclamation Area and Barangay Hipodromo had been demolished.
To go to their new homes, they have to ride a motorcycle-for-hire, locally known as habal-habal, from JY Square Mall in Lahug.
Since there is no road-right-of-way, the motorcycle will go through the Lahug Creek, where it’s only ankle-deep when it’s not raining. The driver then makes his way through women doing the laundry and children taking a bath in the creek.
Swamped
When there’s heavy rain, houses in the lower area, where members of the Upper Laguerta Busay Homeowners Association (ULBHOA) are situated, get flooded.
Artemio Duran, 67, president of the Tabarno Homeowners Association (Tahas), located above ULBHOA, toured the Sun.Star Cebu team in his area. The situation is not better there. The area is so steep that the three-minute walk up the hill leaves one breathless.
“Daghan nang na-disgrasya nga habal-habal labi na’g ulan kay slide ang dan. Mobaha pa gyud ang creek (There have been many motorcycle accidents in the area especially when it’s raining. Then the creek overflows and floods the area),” said Daisy Martinez, 52, president of the Tarcom Upper Laguerta Homeowners Association, which has over 300 households.
The undeveloped relocation site doesn’t help solve the squatting problem in the city because some residents in Laguerta choose to keep a house in urban areas because of the undeveloped site.
Martinez said there should be a livelihood for residents in the relocation site.
In the case of Lisa Gadiano, she has a high school student who is studying in Mabolo.
So she kept a house in the barangay, which is closer to the school and has electricity. During school hours, her student needs light to study.
The Visayan Electric Co. (Veco) refuses to put up a post in an area where there is no road-right-of-way, as in the case of Upper Laguerta.
Light
Residents have to tap electricity from a business-minded neighbor in the lower area for a fee.
A single light costs Gadiano P100 a month.
Her neighbor, Merlin Morales, pays P500 a month for a television set and three lights.
Duran, as president of the homeowners, sent a letter to then mayor now Rep. Tomas Osmeña (Cebu City, south) to develop the road-right-of-way so they can have electricity.
Nothing happened to the letter, so they again sent a letter to Mayor Michael Rama, but got the same result.
In 1999, residents of Barangay Carreta complained of the relocation site in Laguerta.
Then mayor Alvin Garcia told them that when they transfer to the area, roads,
electricity and water would follow.
Most of the residents in Laguerta transferred there in 2004 and 2005 and it was only in October 2010 when water was available. The residents collect water in containers and bring this home.
Unlivable
“They got us water because it was election time,” said Morales in Bisaya. Morales asked if they have to wait for the next election to have electricity and roads.
Lisa Fernandez lived in Upper Laguerta for seven years, but while accompanying the Sun.Star Cebu team down the hill, she slipped.
There are about 300 lots utilized by Tahas, but only 237 are livable and have been distributed.
But of the number, about seven were later declared unlivable by the Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor (DWUP). Despite that, seven houses were built on the lots having a 90-degree slope behind and another 90-degree slope below.
Gadiano said that on two rainy occasions, two of the seven houses moved downwards due to ground movement.
There are 893 vacant lots in Cebu City, 489 of which have been awarded to different beneficiaries but seven of these are unlivable.
There are already between 84 and 90 beneficiaries that are set to be disqualified for failing to build homes.
Residents of Laguerta do not blame them because they have experienced what it is to live in the City’s relocation sites.
There are still 320 lots that have yet to be awarded and half of these are not livable.
Councilor Alvin Dizon, the chairman of the committee on housing, is banking on the P85-million from the National Housing Authority that Osmeña worked on, to develop the sites.
Isolated
The amount is not enough, but Laguerta is a priority area because it is the closest to the city and it is also the city’s most dangerous relocation site.
Duran said he is already retired but some of his children do not want to live with him in Upper Laguerta. They chose to live with other relatives in the urban center.
For those who chose to make the relocation site their home, like Fernandez, who has seven children, they feel like they are not living in the city and in the present generation.
She has to walk with her seven children for about an hour to go to school and back. Riding the motorcycle would be too expensive at P10 per child, P20 per adult, and P30 for a pair.
Incidentally, parallel to the relocation site, in another hill, is the Plaza Ville and Garden Ville in Barangay Busay that provide contrast to the neighborhood on stilts in Upper Laguerta.
Source ; http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/local-news/2011/04/20/beneficiaries-await-answers-lack-water-electricity-safe-roads-151427
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