Widow gets P8T, but stays at creek

SHE received P8,000 in  aid for the shanty she lost in a demolition  at the Mahiga Creek in sitio San Isidro, barangay Mabolo, three weeks ago.

For 68-year-old widow Ma. Lily del Rosario, the amount she received from Reps. Tomas Osmeña and Rachel del Mar of Cebu City’s south and north districts left her thankful for small blessings.

“This is a big help, but it’s not enough to replace my home,” a teary-eyed Del Rosario told Cebu Daily News.

She  now  lives under “trapal”” or canvas tarpaulins with her daughter and grandchild , a few steps from their original shanty by the creek.

Here she will stay, she said,  until she finds  a new home.

Del Rosario said she also lost her store  to the city’s demolition team. She  had to  sell  G.I. sheets from her demolished shanty to a junk shop for  P100 so they could buy  food.

Cebu City officials led by Osmeña and Del Mar visited sitio San Isidro yesterday morning to distribute Land Bank  checks  and dry goods to 32 families displaced by the demolition.

Del Rosario was one of the receipients.

Osmeña gave out checks worth P5,000 while Rep. Del Mar distributed checks of P3,000 from their pork barrels.

Mabolo barangay captain Rey Ompoc said the barangay released P1,000 financial aid to the affected families after they declared sitio San Isidro a calamity area.

Del Rosario said they were offered by the Department for the Welfare of the Urban Poor (DWUP) relocation to the St. Michael’s Village in San Jose Talamban before the May 2 demolition.

“But I don’t have money. We have to pay to enter the village,” she said.

Del Rosario said the P8, 000  financial aid would be enough to pay for a downpayment for a lot in St. Michael’s Village.

The problem is, she won’t have enough money for construction materials to build a house.Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac