Acting City Mayor Sebastian Duterte is urging the public to cooperate once the preemptive evacuation is alerted.
“If there is a preemptive evacuation, they have to cooperate or else we will force them to evacuate,” Duterte said during the City Council media briefing yesterday.
He said the city has sufficient monitoring system to give warnings to the residents and to give enough time for them to evacuate.
In last week’s flooding, residents refused to evacuate despite the warnings raised by the city. Thus, several residents were trapped in their houses during the flooding.
The acting mayor said there are on-going projects to relocate residents in danger zones.
“It is needed and so we will do it, the legislative body will take action on it,” Duterte said.
Councilor Edgar Ibuyan Jr., committee chair on public works and highways, said they have prepared items that allow some agricultural lands be converted into socialize housing that would become the relocation sites.
“The government is doing its best to make projects that would improve the city in terms of infrastructure,” he added.
Ibuyan said Talomo area is a flood-prone area because it was once a rice field and fish pond.
