BACOLOD CITY — Hundreds of informal settlers all over Bacolod swarmed the office of Mayor Evelio Leonardia late last week, with urban poor representatives among them asking the city government to go ahead and secure loans for the purchase of a relocation site for poor urban families.

Such site eyed by the city government is the 58-hectare Arao property in Granada, within the city. The City Council earlier passed Resolutions 873 and 866, authorizing Leonardia to negotiate for a P150-million loan with the Philippine National Bank (PNB) and P250 million from the Philippine Veterans Bank (PVB).

The Arao property is accessible to almost all important government facilities which are adjacent to the to the existing relocation Abada-Escay relocation site, according to City Legal Officer, Atty. Joselito Bayatan. He said that, the Bacolod Houseing Authority (BHA) has recommended that the city should acquire an area of at least 30-60 hectares depending on the discretion of the Mayor.”

The city officials along with Church representatives conducted an ocular inspection late last year on eight properties offered as a relocation site and the city government chose the Arao property.

A resolution asking for the repeal of both resolutions has been filed by businessman Vladimir Gonzalez.

Those who went to Leonardia’s office used to live in demolished esteros and are now just renting shanties in different Bacolod barangays. They asked the Mayor to continue negotiating for the loan until it is released so that they can benefit from a new relocation site soonest.

They also asked the Mayor to provide the new site with electricity and good roads.

The site being considered for purchase by the city government will also accommodate more people currently staying in illegal makeshift structures in Bacolod’s Purok Malipayon, Barangay 12 and those along the highway in Barangay Tangub. An order to demolish the structures in those two areas has already been issued by Leonardia’s office.

Bayatan said the squatters families in Purok Malipayon were given a 15-day period from Dec. 15, 2009 to voluntarily remove their makeshift dwelling places although to date, not a single structure has been demolished. The demolition order for Barangay Tangub is set to be implemented also this month.

Some 2,000 more squatter families, over and above those occupying the aforementioned barangays, also need more permanent dwellings and have applied with the Bacolod Housing Authority for this although the city government’s view is that they cannot all be accommodated in one relocation site.

Still another group of settlers whose dwelling places are to be demolished this month are the over 500 informal settlers in Purok Makawiwili, Banago; 50 families in Barangay 17, and several others in Villamonte, Purok Yanson in Mandalagan, Tangub, Magsungay, Alijis and several other barangays.

Bayatan also said the urban poor families have asked Gonzalez and Councilor Wilson Gamboa Jr., two of those said to be opposed to the new Arao relocation site project for the displaced families, to prove that available space for 2,000 settlers can still be had at the existing Abada-Escay relocation site.

Councilor Dindo Ramos, Chairman of the Sangguniang Panlungsod Committee on Urban Poor, Housing and Resettlement, underlined that Gonzalez and Gamboa’s claims that there still is space in Abada-Escay have no factual basis since BHA records tend to prove that a new relocation site is needed.

For his part, Batayan challenged Gonzalez and Gamboa to “execute affidavits that there are still available lots for 2,000 informal settlers (at the Abada-Escay site) so thatwe can dispute their claims.”

Batayan said that among the areas seen by Gonzalez and Gamboa during a visit to the Abada-Escay site were not for distribution to beneficiaries but are open spaces set aside for government facilities including schools, parks and playgrounds.

Batayan claims that their “political opponents are blocking (the loans) and are claiming the city has failed to develop the area, which was neglected by previous administrations.