Cabrera backs removal of delinquent settlers

A CEBU City councilor is backing a homeowners’ association in calling for the removal of 32 families in barangay Luz who refused to pay for the land  they occupied under the Community Mortgage Program (CMP).

“Actually we don’t want them removed but they filed a case against us,” said Councilor Nida Cabrera. She belongs to a  homeowners’ association that paid for the province-owned lots.

The 32 families lost in the case they filed to own the property in 1994 against the three homeowners’ associations including the Cebu provincial government . The families come from sitios Nangka, Lubi and Mabuhay in barangay Luz.

Of that number, at least 16 are unregistered residents of Lubi Homeowners’ Association, 10 from the Mabuhay Homeowners’ Association and six from the Nangka Homeowners’ Association.

Their homes  were supposed to be demolished last Dec. 18 but Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Ramon Daomilas postponed it after  Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama asked for an extension.

Rama requested a six-month extension but the judge only approved two months for the families to process all requirements under the government’s socialized housing program.

More than 300 families applied since 1995 under the Community Mortgage Program (CMP) to acquire  province-owned lots. But 32 families didn’t  avail of the program.

The opposition stemmed from the provision that they will be evicted if they cannot fully pay.   Starting 1995, most of the families paid by installment their lots  property under CMP.

Diosdada Martinez, president of the Mabuhay Homeowners’s Association, said it’s unfair to them, who complied with all requirements,  that the other  families still don’t pay their dues.

“The finality of the court decision pushed us to support the demolition to vacate the residents,” said Martinez.

Martinez said she was disappointed that Mayor Rama sided with the families instead of them as “legal owners.”

“The city should favor us, the homeowners,” said Martinez

Martinez said the association met with the 32 families to convince them to buy the lots from the Capitol.

“We will abide by the decision of the court because that’s final. In barangay Luz, they were  given an opportunity to buy but they insist that the land was given to them by the province,” Cabrera said.