Over 2,000 Calbayog City squatters are now lot owners

(Let me give you Sarwell Meniano's report for the LSDE. This report came out a few issues ago. I believe it's never too late to feature any good news about the City)

TACLOBAN CITY - Over 2,000 squatters in Calbayog City have turned lot owners after the city government had devised ways in the past eight years to relocate them with the cheapest cost of as low as one peso and fifty centavos per day.

Calbayog City Mayor Mel Senen Sarmiento said in a media interview that this is one of the innovative programs of their city as part in urban planning.

“We are proud to say that from 6,265 informal urban settlers when we started the program in 2002, it went down to 4,000 this year. We are attaining our goal to be an informal settler-free city,” Sarmiento stressed.

Since 2006, the city government has awarded 2,000 secure tenure certificates to these families who once lived in areas with high risk of being swept out to sea or being washed away by flooding due to swelling of rivers during stormy weather.

“The city government is not giving lands for free. The association collects payment daily and the city government collects from the association on a weekly basis." Sarmiento said.

The city mayor pointed out that with this system, a lot owner can devise plans to improve their houses. “We feel that once the land is secured, they find money to improve their houses because they own the land.”

In a mobile phone interview, Cecinio Oquendo, chief of the city urban housing division, described the process as “tedious.”

“It’s hard to convince people to engage in the program. We have to earn their trust and it takes years before others have seen the advantage. The good thing about this is that we have applied the bayanihan concept,” Oquendo told Leyte Samar Daily Express.

The city government approached the land owners of the areas where there are squatters. It was the city government which negotiated sale of the private land to the government itself and in turn the recipient pays the lot according to his capacity to pay. Some would pay as low as P1.50 to P 4.00 a day.

Others too lived in lots owned by the government, though legally transferred. This comprises some 20% of the land area occupied by the informal settlers.

“The agreement is that whatever income we are going to generate, we will bring it back to them through projects aimed to improve their community,” Sarmiento told the media.

Oquendo said that at present, 2,500 families have secured ownership of vacant lots in 10 urban barangays in Calbayog City . These are (with its corresponding number of families): San Policarpo (300), Payahan (300), Rawis (220), Caballero (178), Capoocan (500), Aguit-itan (300), Balud (149), Dagum (115), Hamorawon (300), and Obrero (200).

“We have not transferred those families who built houses in proper places. We have just facilitated in the process of securing land ownership,” Oquendo explained.

The city is eyeing 1,000 more families that would graduate from being tagged as squatters by 2010. Calbayog City is a first class city in the province of Samar. It comprises 157 barangays and is the largest city in Eastern Visayas. According to the 2007 census, it has a population of 163,657 people in 28,912 households.