By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

THREE homestead lots in As Matuis are now breeding grounds for rats that are pestering nearby residents.
Former Rep. Frank G. Cepeda said he and his family can no longer cope with the problem and have reported the matter to the Department of Public Lands, the Department of Public Health and the Division of Environment Quality.
Only Public Health and the DEQ sent personnel to the area yesterday morning, Cepeda said.
The personnel made a brief assessment of the situation and told Cepeda that they will make a report about it.
Cepeda said “lots of rats” intrude into his residence every night.
The mouse trap he bought, catches five to 10 rats a night, he said.
He added that he has to spend an average of $100 on regular basis to hire people who can get rid of the rats.
The three homestead lots have been neglected since 1992, Cepeda said.
Two of them, he added, already have concrete blocks, which means that the supposed homesteaders have started but never completed construction of their houses.
The third lot, Cepeda said, has an unfinished structure.
The rats, he added, keep multiplying because the neglected lots are also being used by some people as dump sites.
“The problem over there is that, ever since I moved in, the lots that have been given out as homesteads have never been developed,” he said.
Cepeda said the DPL homestead division’s policy is supposed to be “clean, build and stay.”
It appears, he added, that the supposed recipients of the lots are not complying with the DPL policy.
“I’m not saying that my house is very clean but we have daily maintenance,” Cepeda said adding that he pays $900 for the house workers who clean up his house, and he’s “quite sure where the rats are really coming from.”
“We also have to move our furniture outside while driving the rats out,” he added.
Last month, DPL’s homestead division listed 26 homesteaders facing revocation of lot applications for failure to comply with the conditions.
Homestead division director Jerome K. Aldan said in interview in February that they had repeatedly warned recipients not to neglect their homestead lots.
Aldan added that only one of 41 lots they visited in Kagman last January passed the inspection.
He said the homesteaders were still given six months to fully comply before his office would recommend revocation.
Homestead recipients are permitted to enter, use and improve the land which will eventually be theirs if they comply with the homestead rules and regulations.
Aldan said, the DPL is trying to be strict in implementing homestead policies because they want to make sure the recipients really occupy and take care of the lots the government has awarded them.