Eviction for Pasil fish port squatters

CEBU, Philippines - The Pasil Fish Port is expected to be cleared of illegal occupants before Christmas so the fish vendors from the Pasil Fish Market can already move there.

Mayor Michael Rama said that he has already assigned one of his trusted personnel to be the point man for the said implementation to ensure that his instructions are strictly enforced.

Market administrator Raquel Arce said she and the other concerned City Hall personnel have already met to discuss how to peacefully evict over a hundred people presently living in the Pasil Fish Port.

The P20 million Pasil Fish Port was occupied by informal settlers after it was no longer used by the city these past few years. The report said that the illegal occupants are also tapping power directly from electric posts.

But Arce is worried by reports that the foundations of the Pasil Fish Port, constructed with donations from the Belgian government, have already been weakened by waves lapping underneath the structure.

When Rama was still vice mayor he was the one who instructed the barangay captains of Pasil and Sawang Calero to assist the City Hall personnel in clearing the building of illegal occupants.

However Rama’s order was never implemented because the concerned barangay officials were hesitant to do it because of the approaching local elections.

Rama wants fish vendors from the Pasil Fish Market along Tupaz St. to be transferred to the fish port because he is planning to convert the area in front of the San Nicolas Church into a public plaza.

But the members of the Market Authority headed by city administrator Jose Mari Poblete want Belgium St., beside the fish market going to the sea, to be widened first to accommodate the cargo trucks that will deliver fish to the fish port. — THE FREEMAN