Perennial problem

It’s only this week that the rainy season is picking up after a few days of showers and for Metro Cebu that means ankle high flood waters that could worsen at a moment’s notice.

In Cebu City that means having to deal anew with the problem of the Mahiga Creek settlers who remain settled in the area despite efforts by the Cebu City government to clear them out owing to a law that prohibits occupation of sites near bodies of waters like rivers and creeks.

Yet owing to the political tug of war between Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama and the Cebu City Council—yes, despite the proclamations of altruistic motives by outgoing Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young and the rest of the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan bloc in the council—there was little headway, if at all, over the clearing operations in the Cebu City side of the Mahiga Creek.

Based on interviews with the settlers it appears they aren’t moving anytime soon. “I have a business here… My children are studying near a school… I have too much invested here,” and so on.

While the indigent settlers—not all can be considered as such because they also maintain stores and what not in the creek—can scream all they want about their rights to have a home especially because of their poverty, the facts that they occupy an area off limits under the law and their continued stay have resulted in the accumulation of their garbage that cause flooding in the outlying areas simply cannot be ignored or set aside in their favor.

Having said that, Cebu City government officials and by extension the public who are most inconvenienced and severely affected by the continued stay of these settlers in the creek are obligated under the law to help them find a suitable relocation site so they can sustain their livelihood and the future of their respective families.

There is a relocation site being offered by the city government contrary to the claims of the BO-PK dominated council but it doesn’t meet the preferences of the Mahiga Creek settlers, who were reported to have found an alternative site somewhere in Minglanilla town outside of Metro Cebu.

We hope these reports are true so these settlers can relocate to the site of course with the assistance of the national government at the soonest possible time. It is tiring to have to deal with the problem that is the Mahiga Creek settlers year after year and continuing to suffer the floods that they cause every rainy season.

In the meantime, city officials and residents will have to content themselves with cleaning up the garbage disposed of by these settlers until the time a relocation site is found for them to live in.