Mindanaotoday.com | Shanties removed in Oro private land
By: Froilan Gallardo
Teams of policemen in riot gear came to support the court-ordered demolition after police received reports that the more than a thousand informal settlers would resist any attempt to remove them from the 25-hectare land owned by a certain Christine Cid.
Maj. Evan Viñas, Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (COCPO) spokesperson, said it would take days to dismantle more than 1,000 makeshift shanties that sprouted overnight in the property since January this year.
Viñas said plainclothes policemen entered the community as early as 3 a.m. Tuesday to check for troublemakers but none were found.
“As of noon Tuesday, the removal of shanties is going on peacefully,” he said.
Informal settlers were left complaining on the side of the road helplessly watching the teams of demolition crew tearing down their shanties.
“The law has again sided with the rich. The poor is being prosecuted again,” an informal settler who identified herself as “Yolly” yelled from the sidelines.
“Yolly” said she paid a total of P1,700 to a group of Higaonon datus allegedly led by a certain Amir Lumatao Alibug who claimed the land as theirs showing a copy of the Spanish land title called “Bagting estate.”
The late President Ferdinand Marcos signed Presidential Decree no. 892 on Feb. 16, 1976, discontinuing the use of Spanish land titles as proof of ownership.
“I forked out another P200 when the datus came last Monday. Pang bribe daw sa pulis,” Yolly said.
The Barangay Carmen local government led by Chairperson Rosemary Lorna Uy issued Monday the demolition order after it found the settlers constructed shanties without permits from the Cagayan de Oro City Office of the Building Official (OBO).
Viñas said a syndicate that claimed vast tracts of land in Barangays Carmen and Macasandig has duped the informal settlers into buying 200-meter lots along the Zayas Landfill Road.
Earlier, police arrested six persons who claimed they were Higaonon datus who have sold the land to unsuspecting buyers for P5,000 per lot.
More than 15 Higaonon datus have denounced the group as “fake” and have demanded they should stop wearing their traditional attires. (MindaNews)