BACOLOD CITY — The Bacolod city government is prioritizing the improvements of its relocation sites as more Bacoleños need resettlement areas, said Mayor Evelio Leonardia on Monday afternoon.
The mayor said that he has asked Councilor Renecito Novero, chairman of the City Council committee on housing and urban resettlement, to conduct a study on the further development of these areas, including construction of major roads, setting up of water facilities, and drainage system, among others.
“The development of the relocation sites is one of our top priorities,” he said in an interview.
Bacolod has two relocation sites located adjacent to each other in Barangay Vista Alegre. The Abada-Escay site or the Progreso Village Relocation Site I was opened in 2004 while the Arao property or the Progreso Vilage Relocation Site II was launched in 2010.
Leonardia said he had preferred that the city government acquire another property situated near the Abada-Escay so that the development in the resettlement sites will be synchronized.
The mayor added that considering the reality of increasing informal settlers, he is also looking at further expansion of the city’s relocation sites.
Bacolod’s first relocation site, now known as Barangay Handumanan, was established in the 1970s.
Architect Faith Joy Lumauag, officer-in-charge of Bacolod Housing Authority, said her office is in the process of evaluating and monitoring the status of settlers in all the relocation sites to weed out violators, particularly those who sell their rights to the lot awarded to them.
This is rampant, she said, adding that the BHA can formally charge the violators once the ordinance penalizing professional squatters and squatter syndicates will be approved.
Lumauag said that so far, the BHA has identified several violators in Abada-Escay and Handumanan relocation sites. (Nanette Guadalquiver/PNA)
