Demolition crew clears shanties under bridge

CEBU City Hall’s demolition team started dismantling  shanties from under the Basak Tagonol Bridge more than a year after it was scheduled for clearing.

Noel Artes, head of the Squatters Prevention Encroachment and Elimination Division (Speed,) said the demolition was delayed several times after the 31 affected families requested for extensions and promised to take down their own  structures.

“The floodwaters from the Kinalumsan River pass through the Basak Tagonol Bridge before making their way to the South Road Properties (SRP),” said Basak barangay captain Dave Tumulak.

Artes said 60 families used to lived under the Tagonol Bridge then went back to their hometowns under the city’s “balik probinsya program” last year.

Artes said they sent some of these families home to Toledo City and the municipalities of Oslob and Alcoy.

Barely 30 families remained under the Tagonol Bridge and they promised to voluntarily demolish their structures before the April 2011 extension.  Instead of leaving,  their numbers doubled, said Artes.

The city’s demolition team also removed 40 makeshift structures illegally built in  J. De Vera Street  near White Gold and headed towards SM City.

Artes said the 40 families who occupy makeshift structures along J. De Vera  Street were among the families whose homes were earlier  demolished in barangay Carreta.

These families were sent home to Lapu- Lapu City and Bogo City  “but they returned and made their homes on the center island so we had their shanties demolished,” he said.

The Cebu City Police Office said  policemen were  standing by at  headquarters for deployment in high-risk calamity areas. Correspondents Chito Aragon and Edison delos Angeles