After several postponements, the demolition of 32 houses in barangay Luz, Cebu City finally pushed through yesterday.
Residents didn’t resist the clearing operation but some felt harassed when the demolition team arrived with armed police escorts.
Members of the Barrio Luz Urban Poor Fraternal Organization (Blupfo) said that they would have wanted to dismantle the houses themselves.
The demolition crew arrived with armed police escorts said Bebie Barillano, the group’s secretary.
A prayer activity was initiated by the Cebu Solidarity with teh Urban Poor to provide spiritual and emotional support for the families .
As of 3 p.m., at least nine houses in the three sitios were torn down, said the Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor.
Rosario Siclot, 72, of sitio Mabuhay said she and her family would spend the night in their dismantled two-story home, which they had worked hard to build since 1957.
“Masakitan pud ta oi,” the mother of 12 said. (We feel really hurt.)
Rosario said she doesn’t know where to stay while the city identifies a relocation site.
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama is asking barangay Luz officials to extend help to families affected by demolition by providing temporary shelter.
“They (barangay officials) have no choice because if a fire strikes, “ ma butang man sila diha,” he said.
Rama said barangay tents can be put up for the dislocated families.
“The burden and the pain of the victims will be more manageable” this way, he said.
Meanwhile, Councilor Alvin Dizon defended the council’s decision to refuse the affected families proposal for the city government to expropriate the lot they occupy.
Dizon, the council’s housing committee head, said the city council did not appropriate funds for expropriation because it would set a “bad precedent” in the city’s socialized housing program.
The affected families did not pay amortization for the province-owned lots unlike their other neighbors.
“It would mean that we will (also) be purchasing the lots of other delinquent urban poor families,” he said. Doris C. Bongcac and Tweeny M. Malinao