Urban poor group asks city help to spare eviction off Capitol lots

Members of an urban poor group had appealed to the Cebu City government for help over their possible eviction from the provincial lots they had occupied for years.

Members of the Cebu Urban Poor Women's League said they were never opposed to the planned land swap deal between the city government and the provincial government, but they only asked for consideration of their situation.

The group's head, Lolita Barellano, told the city government that the lot occupants were beneficiaries of Provincial Ordinance 93-1 but they are now in danger of losing their houses.

The ordinance covers 12 lots within a 468,000-square meter property in the city, nine of which could have been under the land swap proposal.

Most of these lots are part of the Capitol's 504,055-square meter property, and the city had planned to swap these properties with its own 33,737-square meter lot at the North Reclamation Area.

So far, the deal has not been realized but Barellano said the provincial government already sent them notices to vacate the lots in favor of several projects.

Under the ordinance, occupants of the Capitol property were granted the rights to purchase their occupied lots on installment basis from 1993 to 1998. This was later extended to May 2004 but some of the occupants failed to pay their dues.

The occupants asked for another extension but Governor Gwen Garcia vetoed a separate ordinance moving the deadline of dues to another date.

Barellano admitted that of the 4,148 families occupying the lots, only about 1,400 have paid their dues in full. Thus, on May 31, 2004, the Capitol sent notices to vacate to those occupants with arrearages in dues because the allotted time for them already expired.

"We will oppose the provincial government's plan to get back the lots, which we have been occupying for many years. The city government and the Capitol should make it clear what would happen to us, especially beneficiaries of PO 93-1," Barellano said.

Earlier, the city government had assured the 2,815 urban poor families of keeping the lots they had been occupying for the last 30 years, but only if the land swap plan would be realized. - Wenna A. Berondo