Couple moves from shanty atop tomb to condo in Lorega
MEMBERS of the Pancho family shared their shanty inside the old Lorega San Miguel cemetery with the dead for at least 11 years.
But that will no longer be the case now that they have been assigned to occupy door 23 of the Gawad Kalinga urban poor condominium which now stands in a portion of the century-old cemetery lot.
“There is no measure to the joy that I now feel. I have been dreaming of owning a decent home for my family and that dream is now a reality,” said Vicky Pancho, 46.
Couple Vicky and Dioscoro Pancho received the key from former Cebu City north district representative Raul del Mar and GK executive director Luis Oquiñena during the turnover ceremonies on May 11.
They are among the first batch of 60 families who will already be relocated from their shanties built atop tombs into condominiums with a floor area of 34 sq.m. each.
Each condominium unit is equipped with a comfort room and utilities like electricity and water.
Called Condoville 1, the three story structure worth P12 million was built in the middle of a 9,000 square meter cemetery lot which the city council designated as socialized housing site through the passage of a 2010 resolution.
URBAN POOR
“I do not mind even if the condominium area that we will now occupy is smaller than what we used to have for as long as it is clean,” said Vicky Pancho.
Vicky works as a clerk of the Department of Social Welfare and Services (DWSS) which is under the Cebu City Hall while her husband works as a utility worker at the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Both grew up in Oslob town about 117 km from the city, the Pancho couple moved to the city and bought a shanty atop a tomb for P1,500 as their house when they got married in 1990.
Vicky said they moved to the city because the Dioscoro’s workplace the DSWD office was just a block away from their shanty.
“Little by little, we were able to expand and improve our house from the little savings that we made,” said Vicky.
But owning a new home in another area was difficult.
Working as minimum wage earners, the couple’s combined income was barely enough to support the college and high school education of two of their three children.
They also have to spend for the maintenance drugs of their 12-year-old special child who has asthma.
On top of these problems, they also have to bear with the garbage and human wastes around them since most of the families living inside the 1.9 hectare cemetery diidn’t own comfort rooms..
Vicky said they also worry about their security because the cemetery becomes a favorite hangout for addicts and criminals at nighttime.
The Lorega Cemetery was closed in 2005 because it was already considered as unsanitary, said Councilor Alvin Dizon.
Dizon, chairman of the council’s housing committee, said it was a violation of the Sanitation Code to have a cemterty in the middle of a thickly populated community. The Code requires that cemeteries should be 25 meters from the nearest residence and 50 meters from the nearest water source.
Tanny Go, GK project director, said that beneficiaries were selected based on their participation in GK’s Kapitbahayan membership trainings and values formation seminars.
They wer also required sweat equity which is equivalent to 1,000 hours of labor in helping build their assigned unit.
