VOL.11 ISSUE 240 • FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22-23, 2019
P 15.00 • 16 PAGES
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EDGE DAVAO Serving a seamless society
D’BONE COLLECTOR MUSEUM TURNS
SEVEN INDULGE A2
MASSIVE IMMUNIZATION DRIVE. A barangay health worker injects measles vaccine to a child at a health center in Barangay Vicente Hizon, Davao City on Thursday as a response to the call of the government to conduct massive Measles Outbreak Vaccination drive nationwide. Lean Daval Jr
MASS RELOCATION City removing Davao Gulf coastal settler
Woman dies as 2 more fires hit city in 2 days By ADAM B. MORRELL
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ess than 24 hours after a fire gutted down more than 200 houses in Purok 4, Barangay 23-C on Wednesday afternoon, two more fire incidents struck different barangays of Davao City. Nearly three hours after the fourth alarm fire in Purok 4 was declared fire out, a third alarm fire sparked at Purok 13, Kasilak in Barangay 76-A which lasted for almost two hours
and burned down six houses while partially damaging two others. SF03 Ramil Gillado of the Bureau Fire Protection (BFP) reputed that the fire originated at the house of a certain Rhodora Elladora. Gillado said the probable cause of the fire is yet to be determined. “Pero ginatanaw nato ang ‘cause’ ani kay nag gikan sa pag luto, tapos ka-
FWOMAN, P10
By RALPH LAWRENCE LLEMIT
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avao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said that the city government has already taken initial steps in rehabilitating the Davao Gulf. However, she said that massive relocation of tens of thousands of informal settlers is still a long term solution, which she said “will not happen in the next two years” under her term. The mayor’s remarks followed statements of environmental planners and advocates urging local government unit (LGU) to take steps in rehabilitating the Davao Gulf, which is feared of becoming a cesspool like Boracay Island. In a press interview on Thursday afternoon at the City Hall of Davao, Sara said that while the Bantay Dagat program, initiated in 2017
has contributed a huge factor in ensuring the protection of marine environment, particularly the Davao Gulf, where thousands of fisher folk depend on it for livelihood, removing informal settlers nearby coastline areas is still the best solution. Bantay Dagat is one of Mayor Sara’s banner projects, wherein the Davao Ancillary Services Unit (ASU) is the
lead office which oversees the weekly coastal cleanups, along with 290 volunteers. “If you get to see the pictures of the large volume of trans and pollutants that we were able to collect, you will see how important these coastal cleanups are,” Duterte said. She said that the collected garbage such as empty sachets and plastic cups will be segregated and sold as raw materials for recyclable products. Last year, residents of Bucana, a community along the Davao River, were issued an ultimatum to leave and consider relocation. More than 1,000 families were affected. Sara said that the relation
site for the affected Bucana residents, which is in Barangay Los Amigos in Tugbok District, is ready for turnover. The relocation site has a total land area of 23 hectares. The mayor said that the city government is processing papers for another relocation site in Baracatan, Toril. “The property in Baracatan is already brought. What we are going to do now is start the processing of the papers so that we could start building the housing units,” Sara said. Meanwhile, the mayor said that the proposed treatable sewerage plant, as part of the Infrastructure Mondernization for Davao City (IM4Davao) study of Japan Inter-
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