‘Help us set up Mahiga green zones’

Cebu city officials yesterday asked private establishments to support plans to rechannel the Mahiga River and set up “green zones” on both sides to address flooding.

The Mahiga River group, headed by City Attorney Jerone Castillo of the Project REDZ (Reduction of Danger Zones), met with at least 30 representatives of business establishments in barangay Mabolo that are usually affected when the river overflows.

“As stakeholders, you ought to help us out,” Castillo said.

The establishments include SM City Cebu, Radisson Blu Hotel, APM mall, Cebu Daily News, gas stations, stores, and other smaller businesses.

Castillo said Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama would like “ideal easements” on both sides of the river to be made into a park or leisure area. “Lampposts and benches can be placed. This way those who will be throwing their garbage in the river will be easily spotted,” he said.

The vision is to make Mahiga river a model for Cebu city’s four other rivers – Kinalumsan, Bulacao, Lahug and Guadalupe which are the focus of the Project REDZ.

City personnel have started to clear 150 meters from the opening of the Mahiga Creek in the Cebu International Port (CIP) to part of Block 27 as an “ideal easement”

From the edge of the river, there will be five meters easement before the 8-10 meters wide access road.

“We plan to start from the opening of the river and then go upstream,” Castillo said.

They want to restore the original Mahiga river starting from the river’s mouth which is heavily silted.

No specific pledges were made yesterday but the feedback was positive.

“It will be a public-private partnership. There were some who signified interest in helping,” Castillo said.

Castillo, together with other REDZ members headed by Joey Daluz III inspected the area yesterday.

“There was a lot of garbage scattered. Why can’t business establishments clean their own backyard? You should police your own ranks,” Castillo told business representatives during the meeting.

Man-made river

The Mahiga group of REDZ earlier proposed making a “man-made” river to straighten a portion of the Mahiga river which has a curved path from MJ Cuenco Ave. to Block 27 to reduce flooding.

The waterway will be 250 meters long, 10 meters wide and 30 meters deep.

The area affected is a vacant private lot. We are looking into quickly acquiring the area to re-channel the flow of the river. As per reports, the lot is owned by Gaisano, Young and Borromeo,” Daluz told Cebu Daily News.

Several stakeholders yesterday brought up erratic garbage collection in their area.

Malou Ortiz of Express Inn said that they had to pay extra fees to garbage collectors from the barangay before their trash is collected.

“They told us that because we’re a business, we have to pay,” she said.

Vivian Allanares of EconoGas said the trash in her area isn’t collected by the barangay or the city.

“We had to use the services of little boys to collect our garbage. We have to pay them around P200 a week,” she said.

The feedback alarmed Castillo, who asked the store owners to stop the practice.

“If these are little boys collecting the garbage, then they definitely just throw it in the river,” he said.

He promised to look into the reports about uncollected garbage.

Mabolo barangay captain Rey Ompoc denied there was no service.

“We have three garbage trucks. If there is a problem like that, it should be reported to the barangay. We were not informed about this,” Ompoc said.

Another business representative from Alianza Grande said that after they complained to the barangay they were referred to the Department of Public Services (DPS) of City Hall, which told them to rely on the barangay.

“We called the barangay again last Friday. I talked with a certain Ruel from the barangay who said that they will try to collect the garbage by Saturday, but until now it hasn’t been collected,” the representative said.

Because of this, Castillo said that they need to draft guidelines of garbage collection.

“Schedules should be established. If it’s not covered by the barangay, the DPS should collect it,” Castillo said.

He also proposed that a covenant be made between City officials and business establishment to make the Mabolo area a “green zone.”

Business representatives clarified that they do segregate their garbage.

Illegal structures

At least 142 structures encroach in the river’s three-meter easement zone.

Notices to vacate were sent to 98 owners . The rest reside in the jurisdiction of Mandaue City.

Out of the 98, at least 60 have signified interest in working with the city government, Castillo said.

“We will start with the conflict meetings with these owners by Wednesday in groups of five. We will hear them on a case-to-case basis,” Castillo said.

Castilo said the barangay election will not affect their thrust.

“The city has already decided that we will go after illegal settlers who will refuse to move out. We have the political will. We stood our ground and we won the cases which have been filed against the city before for the clearing of the Mahiga settlers,” Castillo said. /Jose Santino S. Bunachita, Correspondent