The Pasay City government will complete rehabilitating Maricaban Creek and Estero de Tripa de Gallina by 2015.
Housing and Homesite regulation head Paul Vega said the continuing mandamus of Supreme Court and the directive of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) have tasked local government units to clean the waterways and the Manila Bay to make them fit for recreational use.
“One part of our compliance with the SC and DILG is to help bring back the Manila Bay to Class B type where family can swim and for recreational purposes,” Vega told Manila Standard.
Since July 2013, he said, the city government has lined up the relocation of 3,340 Informal Settler Families (ISF) along the creeks.
“Many resident in Pasay opted for voluntary relocation and some ISFs opted to submit their respective People’s Plan,” he said.
The National Housing Authority (NHA) has offered resettlement in Barangay Aguado and Hugo Perez in Trece Martines.
Vega said about 1,150 sqautters are due for relocation by June 2015.
“We were able to meet our target for 2014. So far, we have only 20 percent to 30 percent remaining families that need to be relocated to fully meet our goal of zero informal settler families living along the creek side,” he said.
Melba Caporas, of Tripa de Galina creekside, said the family of eight children transferred to avoid flooding.
Caporas said they received a house and lot worth of P240,000 and P18,000 financial assistance from the DILG and DSWD plus food packs and medical kits.
In Cavite, Vega said, she started volunteer work to help fellow settlers in the city’s P800-million relocation project.