Ermita fire victims relocated as reblocking of site begins

As the flames quickly ate up her family’s shanty in sitio Bato, barangay Ermita in Cebu City, Julie Mae Ando kept her composure and grabbed the anti-asthma medicines of her 3-year-old son Leord Nathaniel before scrambling for safety.

The Ando family are cramped in a makeshift tent they set up on the rubble of their shanty but Leord’s aunt Valerie Makibulan was thankful that he still has his medicines.

“My sister Julie also secured the camera but that’s all she carried away because the fire ate up our shanty,” she said.

Ermita barangay captain Antonieto Flores met with fire victims to discuss their relocation to the nearby ML Quezon Street.

He said the occupants will be temporarily housed in makeshift structures while the city government re-blocks the area to widen the access road in the thickly populated coastal sitio of Bato.

Personnel of the Cebu City Risk Reduction Management and the Department of Engineering and Public Works were in sitio Bato yesterday to start measuring the road.

Valerie fed Leord with rice and noodles for lunch when Cebu Daily News visited the evacuation site yesterday.  Their meal was part of the food assistance distributed by the city government.

Valerie and Julie Mae’s parents Amalia and William were employed at the barangay health center and the Office of the Building Official respectively.

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama assured fire victims that they will be allowed to rebuild their houses after the reblocking is completed.

Rama said the reblocking plans will especially focus on the families who occupy mainland structures.

Families whose burnt structures were built on the shorelines will be attended to later, the mayor added.

The Cebu City Fire Department invited two witnesses of last Saturday’s Ermita fire to open their investigation into the incident today. With Correspondent Michelle Joy L. Padayhag