Ejection awaits 3,000 Bacolod squatters
BACOLOD CITY – About 3,000 squatters all over the city face imminent danger of being demolished. This was revealed recently by Sangguniang Panglungsod Member Dindo Ramos, chairperson of the Committee on Housing and Urban Resettlement.
Ramos observed that a lot of landowners want to eject squatters from their lands so that they could utilize their properties for some other purpose.
Last year, around ten land offers to be used as relocation site for squatters were submitted to the office of City Mayor Evelio Leonardia but the latter has yet to act on them.
Ramos said a landowner in Brgy. 10 recently approached him to inform about the plan to eject squatters in his property. But Ramos appealed to set aside the demolition plan pending the acquisition of the land for relocation sites.
Ramos said, the city has to allocate about P100 million to acquire properties to be used for squatters relocation site.
Ramos also recommends that in order to prevent the entry of squatters in the future, he will make a policy preventing the in-flow of migrant squatters in abandoned rural areas.
"Every year, it is a usual trend that we address the plight of the squatters, but now we want to make a policy to make sure that migrant squatters will not increase in number," Ramos added.
Earlier, Mayor Evelio Leonardia confirmed that the city is now on the process of negotiating with the Philippine National Bank to purchase another property for relocation site. He chose to negotiate with PNB because of their track record when the latter released the amount of P394.9 million as contract price for the construction of the New Government Center. He said that once the loan agreement is finalized, he will ask the Sangguniang Panglungsod to give him an authority to sign a document in behalf of the City of Bacolod.