The local government of Cebu City recently kicked off its lots procurement as pre-requisite to establish the South Coastal Urban Development housing project which covers eight barangays.

City Planning and Development Office chief Architect Joseph Michael Espina disclosed that the city government has assembled a team of lawyers to settle property concerns.

“We will discuss how to proceed, and then we will solve problems along the way,” Espina said.

Recently, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. graced and broke ground the SCUD with the Phase 1 to house 8,000 informal settler families and low-wage earners.

The SCUD is situated across South Road Properties and has three phases comprising 60 hectares of land area in Barangays Sawang Calero, Duljo-Fatima, Mambaling, Basak San Nicolas, Basak Pardo, Kinasang-an Pardo, Cogon Pardo and Inayawan.

“There is a law. You have to pay the owners if they own the property. If they have a title, the government will pay you. There’s a law on that,” Espina said.

He added that when the land acquisitions are completed then land development of the area will follow and reiterated that the engineered way of land development will be used and not simply use the direct dumping of filling materials.

Espina also said that they are prioritizing the temporary housing as the city government will order from China one boatload of 2,000 pre-fabricated steel units.

“When that arrives, they can construct it in three months,” Espina said.

The temporary housing will be for ISFs that were affected by the clearing operations on the three-meter easement of waterways while the ISFs await the completion of high-rise buildings under SCUD.

The pre-fabricated materials have already walls and other parts ready for construction.