CICC to house some Mandaue fire victims

CEBU, Philippines - A portion of the controversial Cebu International Convention Center will be used to house vulnerable individuals who are among the fire victims in barangays Guizo and Mantuyong in Mandaue City.

Baltazar Tribunalo Jr., chief of Cebu Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, identified vulnerable individuals as children not older than seven years old, pregnant women, elderly (60 years old and above), malnourished, and people who are ill.

Tribunalo said these people are particularly vulnerable when a disaster strikes and take a relatively high share of the disease burden associated with emergencies.

“We can’t allow everyone to camp inside. It’s not safe,” he said.

The fire victims from the two barangays in Mandaue City had been camping out at the CICC compound since March.

Julius Regner, PDRRMO spokesperson, explained that as much as the Capitol would want to accommodate all the fire victims inside the CICC but their lives might be put in danger.

“Dili gyud safe ang structure para puy-an. Kuyaw kaayo para sa pamilya ug sa mga bata,” he told reporters yesterday.

Officials from the Capitol, PDRRMO, Mandaue City and the evacuees will meet on Monday at 2 p.m. at the CICC command center to identify vulnerable individuals.

Tribunalo said a team will be sent to CICC to assess and determine areas that are still habitable and safe from falling debris following the order of Acting governor Agnes Magpale.

He, however, clarified that the fire victims can stay at the entrance of the building during heavy downpour but they have to go back to their tents as soon as the rain stopped.

At least 2,222 families have been taking shelter at the grounds of CICC for the past two months now since the fire razed their homes in barangays Guizo and Mantuyong in Mandaue City.

A number of evacuees have already built shanties around the abandoned P700-million province-owned building using coconut lumber as foundation, bamboo strips as walling and tarpaulins as roofs.

The CICC has been abandoned after it suffered severe damage due to the magnitude 7.2 earthquake that rocked Bohol and Cebu in October 2013 and super typhoon Yolanda in November of the same year.  The facility would reportedly need around P160 million for its restoration and upgrade.

The building is owned by the Capitol while the lot where the facility stands is owned by Mandaue City government. The facility was constructed for the 2007 Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit.

The administration of Governor Hilario Davide III refused to spend “even a single centavo” for the repair of CICC because the province was reportedly not earning from the facility and it is a subject of a pending case. — (FREEMAN)