Tomas berates Mike on Mahiga demolition

The sight of 74-year-old Natalio Icot breathing with the aid of an oxygen tank inside his shanty at the Mahiga Creek was too much for Rep. Tomas Osmeña.
That and the sight of demolished houses prompted Osmeña to rail against his successor, Mayor Michael Rama.

“This is so painful. He (Rama) is using this as a trophy to display that he has political will. Why doesn’t he pick someone his own size? That is political will,” said Osmeña.

Osmeña with his wife Councilor Margot Osmeña and three other councilors visited the creek shortly before noon yesterday.

While he and the councilors spoke to the families, 15 members of the city’s demolition team withdrew from the area and boarded a waiting dump truck.
A resident showed Osmeña a copy of the complaint they filed against Rama before the Office of the Ombudsman.

“There are many squatters in the city. Why is the mayor picking on us? Where is his conscience?” the teary-eyed resident said.

The female resident said Rama should instead order the demolition of commercial structures like a downtown department store that is encroaching on the river.

Councilor Edgar Labella said he pitied the displaced families.

“What has gotten into Mike that despite all their pleas he still didn’t provide a relocation site after ordering the demolition,” Labella told Cebu Daily News.
Labella said while he understood Rama’s reasons for wanting to clear the Mahiga creek of illegal structures, the mayor “should have tempered justice with mercy.”

The clearing up operation began may 2 and affects 147 families.

As of yesterday, about 30 shanties near the city slaughterhouse by the creek were removed.

Structures on the other side of the creek in Mandaue City territory are set for demolition anytime.

While the Cebu City mayor won’t authorize cash aid or alternative housing, the Mandaue City government prepared a 6.5-hectare lot in barangay Paknaan for relocation.

Gemma Rosaseña, president of the Mahiga Creek Homeowners Association, said they don’t know where to take the items they saved from their demolished structures.

The affected families have set up makeshift structures.

Estrella Arcepe, a mother of 10, said some of her children sleep on plastic chairs.

Others sleep on a platform of pieces of wood. Councilor Margot Osmeña offered to bring Arcepe’s children to the Parian Drop-in Center.

At least two of Arcepe’s children are beneficiaries of the city’s mobile school program, which she helped establish when her husband was still mayor.
She said other children below 18 can stay in the dorp-in center for the short term.

Congressman Osmeña instructed Mabolo barangay captain Rey Ompoc to set up tents as temporary shelter and plans to set up a feeding program, using P1,000 daily from his own funds and donations from friends.

Arcepe said two of her children aged three and four years old have been suffering from cough.

Osmeña also ordered Icot’s admission at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) and promised P25,000 in medical assistance, including P5,000 as payment for his recent hospital confinement.

Natalio has acute asthma and had to breathe with the aid of an oxygen tank.

Mary Jane, Icot’s daughter, said her father’s condition worsened because of the demolition of their neighboring structures.

Only Icot’s shanty, which his family occupied for at least 20 years, remained standing near the city slaughterhouse.

Councilor Alvin Dizon convinced the demolition team to allow Icot to occupy his shanty until Monday so his family can build a makeshift shanty in the area.