On removing illegal structures
Few days ago, we, Cebu City residents, received a very welcome bit of information. We were very happy to know about a budgetary allocation of the national government in the amount of more than a billion pesos for Cebu City. It is not every year that the power wielders in imperial Manila decide to return to us a fair share of the taxes we pay. So, to me, this is a nice turn of events which we should thank the national leadership for even if we are entitled to it.
Accordingly, this money is for implementation by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). The main project is reportedly centered on removing whatever impedes the natural flow of water on our rivers, taking out the huge volume of silt, dredging the city's main water channels and clearing the banks.
Who broke the news to us? In the normal course of events, it would have been the office of the city mayor who would trumpet that an important project was soon to be undertaken in the city. In fact, such announcement should be made in such a way that while expressing gratitude to the national government, we had to credit the city leadership for working it out. But, this news was not released by His Honor, Cebu City Mayor Tomas R. Osmeña. The honorable city councilor Jerry Guardo, of the North District, revealed that information.
True to the off-tangent nature of this column, I will not dwell on the details of this billion plus project. Councilor Guardo, has remarkably done that. What we, on our part, may do is just to await its implementation and for me to try to fathom why the mayor chose to seal his lips.
I believed that the former city mayor, in the person of Atty. Michael L. Rama, tried his best to address such environmental concerns as flooding of the city streets. That was what I saw. I imagined however, that the kind of fund needed to undertake the necessary project, in one sweep, was beyond the city's financial capacity though. There were other basic services to deliver and they would be jeopardized if he would spend all available tax money on solving flooding. I surmised then that Atty Rama adopted a kind of, in my own coinage, Rationalized project programming. For example, he cleared the mouth of Mahiga River at the North Reclamation area and widened the bank. Then, he thought that removing the structures built by informal settlers nearby was the next step the expense for which was affordable to the city coffers.
The project seemed to move smoothly up to the point when illegal structures were to be demolished. It was understandable that affected homeowners resisted the idea. Call it self defense or self preservation. Atty Rama, then the mayor, had to be stopped. Within a blink of an eye, the settlers filed a case. They were represented by a person so close to Atty Rama's political foe that I concluded that the filing of the case was at the instance of the opponent. There were other cases of similar political undertones that were brought to court. True enough, Atty Rama's project got stalled.
To me, the concept defining the recently announced billion peso plus DPWH project breathed its life from the formulation of the rationalized project programming of then Mayor Rama. This time, it's on a grander scale because its budget is well beyond what the city can afford. We know that everything Atty. Rama did or pursued was anathema to Mayor Osmeña. That should not exclude the rationalized project programming to be presently funded by the national government. For the sitting mayor to embrace it openly would however be like slapping himself.
I honestly believed that the legal action of the informal settlers to stop Atty. Rama from demolishing their homes, was sponsored by Rama's political fiend. As of now, they stand to be removed from where they built their houses. The sitting mayor cannot stop the demolition. In fact, in the prosecution of this project, he has to do it. He will claim public interest as his basis. But in so doing he will only have admitted that the program of his nemesis was anchored on public weal. What a twist of fate!