CH sets deadline to clear areas affected by Duljo blaze

Measures to help the more than 600 families who lost their homes to a Christmas blaze in Barangay Duljo-Fatima are now in place.

The Cebu City Government will start re-blocking the seven fire-torn sitios in the barangay on Friday, Jan. 11.

Genevieve Alcoseba, Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor operations chief, said they are giving the 659 families, or 3,075 individuals, until Thursday, Jan. 10, to salvage their belongings from the fire site before the area is declared ground zero.

The affected sitios are Buli, Ponyang, Mansanitas, Catwalk, Plastikan, Pasong Kabayo and San Pedro.

“So far, during our meeting on Thursday, Jan. 3, the affected families understood that the City needed to re-block the area to make their community safer,” she said in Cebuano.

Alcoseba said the families welcomed the re-blocking program, adding that most of them resided on City property.

Owners of structures on City property were assured they could return.

As for those who rented a private lot, Alcoseba said they needed to meet with the owners and the displaced families.

“The titled properties that the City awarded through a residential patent will be returned intact to their owners since their ownership is absolute. We will only re-block properties that have not been awarded yet. We made the survivors understand that they might not be returning to the same spot where they used to live. There will be movements,” Alcoseba said in Cebuano.

She said the response from the survivors has been positive so far, since they also want to leave the evacuation sites.

Aside from the re-blocking program, the City will also build a 6.5-meter access road and a three-meter pathway in the area. The construction of an embankment will follow to prevent flooding.

“We will elevate the affected area because one of the things that the City needs to address is the problem of flooding,” Alcoseba said in Cebuano.

With 266 cases, Cebu City topped the list of the most number of fire incidents in the province last year.

Since most of these incidents took place in urban poor areas, Alcoseba said their priority this year is to intensify their community disaster preparedness seminar workshops.