Rama’s b’day gift: Resume Carbon Unit II reconstruction work

CEBUCity Mayor Michael Rama yesterday gave the contractor of the Carbon Market Unit II reconstruction project the go-signal to proceed with the project, which was ordered stopped 10 years ago.

Rama led the groundbreaking ceremony signaling the start of the reconstruction  a day before his 58th birthday.

Rama said this was his gift to the vendors.

Young Builders Corp., which suspended work on the project 10 years ago, was asked yesterday to resume work on Unit II.

The contractor, which won the bidding  during the administration of former mayor Alvin Garcia, stopped the project after  the next mayor Tomas Osmeña changed the project’s design

Young Builders Corp. sued  the city government to demand payment for initial work done. The legal battle continues  to date.

Raquel Arce, market administrator, said that Young Builders would follow the old  market design,  which provides a ramp.

Because of limited  funds, she said the project would  be limited to a two-story structure where vendors use the ground floor  and the upper floor would  be a parking area.

A P170 million budget was  appropriated for the project.

Arce said another P100 million would be included in the 2013 budget to complete the reconstruction. Before work  starts, the city has to  relocate  500 vendors operating  around the fenced Unit II construction area to the nearby M.L. Quezon Street.

Vendors will have to occupy 24 meters of the 27 meter road while the remaining 3 meters will be used for  vehicles  until construction is completed in one year.

Arce said she has been meeting different vendors’ associations to plan their temporary transfer to M.L. Quezon Street.

Mayor Rama’s order to evict illegal  occupants at the Citi Center Complex in barangay Kamagayan before his return from Rome, went unheeded.

City administrator Jose Marie Poblete issued the order on Oct. 18 and posted copies on site.

The next day, acting mayor Joy Augustus Young issued a hold order to suspend the clearing operations, saying consultations have to be done first with affected traders and about 50 families there.

“I can’t blame him (Young) for issuing the hold order.  I don’t know if he has visited the area and he knows the facts,” Rama said.

Now that he’s back from his Rome trip, Rama said he would pursue clearing operatinos.  But first, Rama said, he will  check if an order was  made revoking  Poblete’s earlier order for the clearing of the area. /Correspondent Edison A. delos Angeles with a report from Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac