Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Rolando ‘Klarex’ Uy ordered the City Housing Urban Development Department (CHUDD) to set aside a city-owned lot for the 425 families that will be displaced in a demolition inside a military camp.

 

In his Friday program ‘Ang Inyong Alagad: Mayor Klarex Uy’, Mayor Klarex said he received assurance from top officials of the military’s Fourth Infantry Division (4th ID) that they will forward his request for a delay of the scheduled April 1 demolition of houses occupied by the families inside the reservation area in Camp Evangelista, Barangay Patag this city.

 

‘I thanked 4th ID chief Maj. Gen. (Jose Maria) Cuerpo (II) for visiting me at my office in relation to this issue and he assured me that he will relay my request to defer the demolition in order to allow the children to finish their schooling at the Camp Evangelista Elementary School…I understand and the families understood (that the demolition is inevitable),’ Mayor Klarex said in Visayan.

 

The 4th ID leadership is said to have assured its commitment to provide for the needs of the 425 families composed of 1,974 persons that will be displaced by the demolition. The reservation area is covered by Presidential Proclamation No. 265 and the Supreme Court rendered its ruling against the petitioners as ‘final and executory’ last year.

 

Mayor Klarex said some settlers already demolished their houses in the area while 4th ID spokesman Maj. Francisco Garello said they and barangay Patag officials held a pre-demolition conference as early as September last year for the families.

 

Details on the lot to be chosen for the families have yet to be disclosed. ‘I told the CHUDD to (fasttrack the assessment and development) of the city-owned property for the affected families. Never mind if the area has yet to be fully developed so long as we provide concrete assurance that there will be a lot reserved for these families where they can build their own homes,’ Mayor Klarex said in Visayan. (Stephen Capillas of City Information Office)