The local government of Kidapawan remained firm in its decision not to allow residents of several upland villages in the city to go back to their landslide-prone communities amid threats of quake and typhoon.
According to an Inquirer report, Cotabato Governor Nancy Catamco questioned the declaration of several areas which were considered as indigeonous peoples’ ancestral domains, making these off limits. Catamco stated that the leaders of indigenous people in the area could have been consulted first.
Kidapawan Mayor Joseph Evangelista expressed in a statement that he only wanted to protect the lives of the people living in these landslide-prone villages like Ilomavis, Perez, and Balabag. He also stated that the identification of “no-build zones” was “an indispensable part of the process of planning” for the resettlement of the evacuees.
They were later advised by the city government not to return to their respective communities because geologists from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) and the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHILVOLCS) have found these areas prone to landslides apart from the large cracks on the ground because of the quakes,
According to the report, 1,700 families needed to be relocated from their communities to safer places. These families are settled in evacuation centers amid the search for a suitable relocation site.
“The MGB and Phivolcs are not restricting them from tending their farm, so we must find a site within their respective barangays but which are not exposed to the risk of landslide or rock falls,” Evangelista was quoted as saying.
Consultations are also being undertaken with respective barangay councils and tribal leaders “to ensure that any proposal will be fully understood an acceptable to stakeholders.”
Evangelista acknowledged that the recommendations of the MGB and Philvolcs geologists have yet to be incorporated into a revised comprehensive land use plan and zoning ordinance for Kidapawan.
He said they were already working on its legislation to provide legal basis to resettlement initiatives.
