WITH the heat rising, residents in Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City emerged from their homes one by one, as a demolition team wrecked their houses yesterday.
Close to a hundred informal settlers lost their houses, built on a 1,300-square-meter private property in Sitio Kana-as, Banawa.
Bearing a court order issued by Judge Edgemelo Rosales of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities Branch 8, the demolition team arrived with police back-up.
The order listed 22 houses to be torn down.
The affected residents said they did not receive any notice of demolition or a notice to vacate, but the sheriff said otherwise. The court received documents indicating that the notice had been served.
“Taas na kaayo ang panahon nga gihatag nila sa korte. Kapila na-postpone mao nga karon amo na gyud gi-implementar (They were given a long time to vacate, that is why we have to implement this now),” Mariano Edar Jr. said.
One of the residents, Purificacion Sabio, said she has lived in the shanty community for over three decades.
A relocation site in Talamban, Cebu City awaits the residents, but they are also asking for financial aid.
“Mas maayo kung nay kwarta ihatag namo para naa mi magamit sa among pagbalhin sa lugar. Asa man mi ug ibayad sa among kargahan nga wa man mi bisan piso (We need money so we can pay for transporting our belongings to the area),” a resident said.
Leonardo Rabaca, a community organizer from the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP), said a memorandum of agreement between the residents and the lot owner is being finalized so that families can immediately move to the relocation site.
Police teams from the Guadalupe Police Station commended the residents for keeping the demolition orderly.
