The Bacolod Anti-Baha Alliance yesterday issued a press release scoring the city government for the delay in the transfer of the residents of Barangay Banago in Bacolod City to the relocation sites since the areas have not yet been completed.

In the press release, its council member, Jean Trebol yesterday said that the relocatees of Banago are temporarily residing at the pala-pala in Purok Mahimulaton, Banago as the city relocation sites are not yet ready as calendared by the Bacolod City Flood Control Coordinating Action Team in its Action Plan.

The press release said the Action Plan furnished the group by the Office of the City Mayor indicated that the relocation of the houses along the Banago Creek should have been completed by November 2007, but as of December 9, 2007 the demolition work was only partially done.

The press release also said the BAHA Council Monitoring as of Dec. 9, 2007 showed that the relocation of the squatters started Dec. 4 instead of Nov. 17 as promised by the city.

It added that the clearing of the waterways from Brgy. Bata to Purok Riverside in Banago should have been simultaneously completed by end of November this year.

The release also said the clearing and cleaning of the Mambulac Creek and the Maupay Creek should have commenced in November 2007 but as of Dec. 9, nothing has been done yet.

It also claimed that the city's action plan include the construction of the 800-meter canal to stretch along the Pepsi-Banago Circumferential Road (Purok Riverside, Banago) in November to December this year.

Mayor Evelio Leonardia yesterday said relocating people is not a mechanical act. “When we deal with relocating people, we always use maximum tolerance and always consider the humanitarian side of the situation, so that over the years, we have always been flexible, because we always try to understand the sad plight of our people.”

Leonardia said the thing is, there are clear movements. He said they are happy that Banago Brgy. Captain Roel Cordova, Councilors Dindo Ramos and Roberto Rojas, and even Fr. Aniceto Buenafe of the Social Action Center of the Diocese of Bacolod had been assisting the city.

How they wish, there were more people like the Bantay Banwa whose motto is “Stop Complaining, Do Something,” he added.

Leonardia said that, from the start they have been clear that the construction of the 800-meter canal along Purok Riverside in Banago was a project of the Department of Public Works and Highways. He said that, even in the meetings that were attended by BAHA representatives, that was acknowledged by the DPWH. He said the DPWH also assured that it has dealt with the occupants including in Purok Riverside including the land owners.

“In fact we were the ones who discovered that a portion of the property is owned by the Philippine National Bank and we had even offered to try to help,” Leonardia said.

“I cannot understand why even the obligation of the DPWH, which is a national agency, is being blamed on us,” he said. “One thing is for sure is that things are moving, especially with the arrival of the dredger of Sipalay,” Leonardia said.

Councilor Roberto Rojas said they have started the preparation of the relocation site in the Kimara Association in Banago, which he described as a swampy area. However, the roads in the site are too narrow for the trucks of the city to go through to be able to deliver filling materials and this has caused some delay, he said.

They are doing everything they could to prepare the Kimara Association area to help the affected residents transfer there before Christmas, Rojas said.

He said the dredging operation in Banago may start today after the fan belt of the dredging machine, which the city rented from Sipalay, is replaced. He had said the dredging operations will start from Purok Mahimulaton in Banago, then the Mandalagan Creek, Mambuloc Creek and another creek in Gaisano.

Leonardia had requested the Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod to appropriate an additional P2.5 million last month after it had declared an imminent danger of calamity in the city, since the P10 million it had earlier appropriated in Mar. 2, 2007 for flood control activities was not enough.

The P2.5 million includes the P1.5 million which will be used for the dredging of the 500-meter floodway in Purok Riverside. Which is part of the 800-meter flooding bypass project of the DPWH, Leonardia earlier said. This is because the DPWH has only a budget of P6 million which can only cover 300 meters of the 800-meter project.*CGS

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