Plaza planned for senior citizens

CEBU, Philippines - The remains of the huge concrete structure that was hit by a fire several years ago beside the century-old Gotiaoco building infront of Cebu City Hall is scheduled to be demolished by next week so that it can be converted as plaza for the senior citizens.

Mayor Michael Rama yesterday met with Cebu Port Authority (CPA) general manager Dennis Villamor and other port officials, together with city agriculturist Julito Baclayon to discuss the demolition of the structures. City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete said the WTG Construction owned by Willy T. Go had offered the use of some of their equipment for free.

The FREEMAN observed that these structures still had occupants as of yesterday but Poblete said their days of occupying the structures are numbered.

Aside from the warehouses of various kinds of market products, the concrete structures were also used as dwelling places of several persons for the past several years until the mayor ordered them to vacate the place for safety reasons.

The Office of the Building Officials (OBO) had declared that the remains of the old structure that only composed of columns and walls of the burned building had been badly affected when the 6.9- magnitude quake hit Cebu City and other parts of the region last month.

Some persons are reportedly making money out of that lot owned by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) because they were collecting rentals from the owners of the warehouses.

The FREEMAN interviewed some of the occupants who earlier claimed that they are paying P4,000 a month while others said they paid more.

Because the remains of the burned building do not have roofs, the traders constructed houses inside the structure, some of them even have air-conditioning units, but the DENR are not collecting rentals from them.

Rama explained that because the City Council deleted the budget for the construction of the public plaza for the senior citizens, the city will just free the place of structures and perhaps develop it through the help of the private sector.

The port officials were called by Rama in yesterday’s meeting because he wanted that the concrete fence of the Cebu Port Authority in that area will be also demolished.

The place was then part of the port, including the Compania Maritima building, but the government reclaimed the place in 2001 to build a viaduct and the tunnel that links the South Coastal Road to Plaza Independencia.

The earlier plan was that the plaza for the senior citizens will be constructed at the South Road Properties (SRP) but Rama said it is very difficult for the elderly persons to go there.

— (FREEMAN)