THE Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has asked local officials to start moving hundreds of squatters from areas affected by the ongoing construction of a section of the coastal road in Tabaco, Barangay Puntod. DPWH regional director Evelyn Barroso, in letters sent to Mayor Oscar Moreno and the city council, urged city hall to immediately provide assistance to the affected families. “Per initial review and inquiry by this office, the affected informal settlers along the said section were already evaluated and issued Certification of Award for inclusion in your shelter plan and are just awaiting for their relocation,” reads a letter sent to the city council. Barroso said the DPWH has reiterated its request for the immediate relocation of the informal settlers because they have delayed the road construction. During a meeting of the city council’s committee on urban and rural poor chaired by Councilor Leon Gan, DPWH representative Engr. Ludelle Jave Acacio said the project construction has already been delayed for months because the informal settlers have not yet been relocated by city hall. “The informal settlers were already evaluated but the city government cannot offer immediate relocation. Daghan man gud kayo and then mura og gamay na lang ang nabilin nga slots for relocation,” she told the committee. Acacio recommended that the city government acquire more relocation sites, adding that there were more DPWH projects that would require relocation like the mega dike project along Cagayan River.She suggested that city hall build condominium-type resettlement areas similar to what is being done in Manila and Quezon cities.Gan said he favorably endorsed to Moreno the request of the DPWH for the immediate relocation of informal settlers. -lito rulona