Council okays MOA signing on free supply of filling materials

CEBU, Philippines - Relocation sites in barangays Mantuyong and Guizo in Mandaue City will be soon supplied with free filling materials.

This after the Mandaue City Council approved the report of the committee on laws and ordinance authorizing the chief executive to sign a memorandum of agreement with Cebu Contractors Association Incorporated (CCAI), along with government agencies, on such free supply.

Earlier, the City Council referred to its committee on laws for study the proposal of the city's Housing and Urban Development Office (HUDO) to exempt from the existing ban on trucks those that supply filling materials to relocation sites.

Once the exemption is granted, the mayor can sign a formal agreement with the CCAI, Department of Public Works and Highways-6th Engineering District, Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue (TEAM), HUDO, City Engineers Office, and Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO).

"The committee recommends authorizing the City Mayor, Gabriel Luigi Quisumbing, to sign the memorandum of agreement, for the free supply of filling materials in the 9.2 and 6.5 relocation areas in Mantuyong and Guizo, respectively," the report read.

However, council committee head Nenita Ceniza-Layese said that the MOA only covers the commitment to undertake their specific tasks in order to develop the area for a housing project.

Under the agreement, PENRO will waive inspection of the filling materials intended for the sites in Guizo and Mantuyong.

TEAM, for its part, will be responsible for monitoring and checking the permits of trucks that will enter both barangays.

At present, trucks are being banned from entering the city in certain hours of the day but Mayor Luigi Quisumbing wants works on the relocation site completed soon so that fire survivors who are housed at the Cebu International Convention Center can return to Guizo and Mantuyong before the year ends.

The city plans to give 28 square meters of land to each of the families left homeless by the fire last March. Based on the initial assessment of HUDO, only 369 families can be given 28 square meters of land each.

Aside from developing the Guizo-Mantuyong area, the city government is also looking for possible relocation sites that have either been developed but not yet reblocked, or a lot that requires only minimal development. (FREEMAN)