City Hall beautifies Compania Maritima

CEBU, Philippines — The highly-disputed Compania Maritima had been cleaned and beautified again by the Cebu City government for the Christmas season, this time, without commotion.

Last Christmas, City Hall and Carbon Redevelopment Project contractor Cebu2World Development cleaned, painted, and wrapped the structure with a red-lighted ribbon for it to look like a giant gift, with Christmas trees over the windows.

It was said as a gift to the Cebuanos, as the structure used to be filled with stocks of fruits and vegetables, then later on with garbage, dwellers, human waste, and even drug addicts and human waste.

The Cebu Ports Authority (CPA), however, asserted its ownership of Compania Maritima over the property, following a court decision, and prevented the city government from further sprucing it up.

CPA also stopped the Carbon Redevelopment Project's "Puso Village" and its mechanized parking, which are just beside the Compania Maritima.

Because of that, the structure went back to its old, filthy form, despite the new paint.

The Puso Village was supposed to open last January, but was put on hold due to the legal conflict with CPA.

Last month, Mayor Michael Rama disclosed that the Department of Transportation (DOTr) had given the City the go signal for the conversion of the structure into a maritime museum, and for the Puso Village and the mechanized parking to proceed.

The mayor said he spoke about Compania Maritima with Secretary Jaime Bautista and Undersecretary Mel Sarmiento, who is taking charge of DOTr's maritime sector.

Recently, Rama ordered City Hall employees to clean up the structure.

Yesterday morning, Aderson Comar, head of the City's Prevention, Restoration, Order, Beautification and Enhancement (PROBE) team, said their cleanup was uneventful.

He said that although there were at least two guards CPA stationed at the area, they did not stop the City Hall employees from clearing the area, in contrast to a few months back when CPA stopped from its beautification project.

Last September, CPA installed a fence near Campania Maritima but the city government, through the Office of the Building Official, immediately issued a "notice of illegal construction and work stoppage" order.

“Wala ra…. Dapat pasalamat gani sila nga ang ila nang giangkon, kami ang nanglimpyo,” Comar said.

PROBE also took out a wire fence that was becoming an eyesore.

So far, the City Hall employees already removed seven truck-loads of garbage from inside and around the disputed property.

Comar also said that after cleaning the structure up, the city would light it back again. — (FREEMAN)