The bigger challenge

At the risk of sounding downright cruel, one cannot help but agree with the Cebu City Council’s position to turn down the petition of three homeowners in barangay Luz to seek the city government’s help to purchase the lots they occupied.

The three homeowners associations were supposedly invited to join a community mortgage program that would allow them to buy the lots they occupy from the province, an arrangement that had been followed by their fellow homeowners groups.

But these three homeowners associations consisting of 32 families claim that the program’s conditions were onerous and that they were supposedly the beneficiaries of a previous government relocation back in the 50s or 60s.

As such, their position is that they shouldn’t have to participate in the mortgage program since they consider it an arrangement between the Capitol and Cebu City Hall that was done without their input.

But with a Supreme Court ruling that nullified their position, they’re now turning to the Cebu City government for help by asking it to buy the lots they occupy which they will eventually repay in a settlement scheme that they deem to be affordable—which in retrospect constituted pretty much the same parameters of the community mortgage program.

With the Oct. 8 deadline for the demolition of their homes looming, the 32 families are appealing to Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama for help but with the council not budging the mayor is left with very little options.

The council’s position is that if Rama was so helpful to the 32 families, then why didn’t he show the same compassion for the displaced settlers of the Mahiga Creek whose homes were dismantled as part of the city government’s efforts to clear the city’s waterways in order to avoid more floodings in the city.

While the council’s position is not without self interest—the settlers are supposedly part of the constituent base of the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK)–it practically dovetails into Rama’s refusal to “baby” or burden the city with more settlers that it can possibly accommodate.

Sooner or later, something should be done about the movement of indigent settlers from the countryside into Cebu City or any other Metro Cebu local government unit in order to cut down on overpopulation.

This responsibility falls squarely on the shoulders of the Cebu provincial government which should generate employment and livelihood opportunities for settlers like the 32 families, not a few of whom moved from their countryside homes to find a living in Cebu City, only to wind up disappointed and making their homes in government-owned lots, rivers and creeks and expecting LGUs to give them their housing.

But resources and space can only be stretched so far as to accommodate all of them. Relocating these families is but a temporary solution that doesn’t solve the bigger challenge of ending the ongoing movement of indigent settlers from the countryside and instead developing growth centers in their areas.