Common ground, common solutions

It may be reading too much on his motive, but Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama’s decision to allocate P10 million as livelihood assistance to displaced families of Mahiga Creek appears to be a concession to the City Council, which called on the mayor to provide aid to the families.

In approving the fund release, Rama reiterated that the allocation will not be a dole out but a form of assistance that will be monitored to see that it’s used for the purpose it was intended for.

It didn’t exactly take too much of the mayor’s energy and brainpower to approve this livelihood assistance, which can adequately compensate for the loss of homes for the affected families.

As things stand now, they occupy Block 27 of the North Reclamation Area, a designated temporary shelter consisting of tents, portable toilets and some lighting. The settlers are supposed to occupy the area until a suitable relocation site is provided for them.

But how many would bet that the families may somehow develop a liking to the area, considering that they will be given livelihood aid and the temporary relocation site is quite close to where their houses once stood?

More importantly, what’s to keep these families from quietly moving out of the temporary relocation site and occupying their previous area, whether it be near or beyond the three-meter easement zone imposed by the city government?

Remember that the displaced families have been looking at all sorts of ways to move back to their former spots in the Mahiga Creek regardless of the gross inconvenience and danger they pose not only to themselves—the downpour can cause their homes to be swept aside—but also to city residents who have to deal with the resulting floods caused by the careless disposal and dumping of garbage in the creek that clog the natural flow of rainwater to the waterways.

The downpour of recent days showed again to all and sundry the crucial importance of declogging Cebu City’s waterways and creeks to reduce floods in the city’s streets.

With the city’s antiquated drainage system, clearing and dredging of the Mahiga Creek remain top priorities but the council, dictated by their benefactor, chose to aggressively put down Rama rather than work out a compromise to the Mahiga Creek problem.

A solution was being worked out for the families, but both Rama and the council decided to be bull-headed about their stance rather than find a common ground in finding solutions to the problem.

The P10-million livelihood assistance was one such solution, bridging the council’s request that assistance to the families be given and Rama’s insistence that no dole outs be given because it will only encourage more squatters to come to Cebu City.

Again, was the livelihood assistance timed with the City Council’s declaration that it may forego with Mayor Rama’s State of the City Address (SOCA) in their inaugural session on July 1?

The SOCA is another issue altogether, but for now, the livelihood assistance merely showed that if the mayor and the council chose not to be so politically antagonistic with each other that they can find common ground and common solutions for the betterment of Cebu City’s residents.