Approximately 2,000 families, including farmers, in Purok 1, Barangay Anunas, are at risk of forced eviction on Thursday, September 14. This comes after authorities arrived at the location on September 11, Monday, enforcing the court decision canceling the awarded lot rights in the 72-hectare land of the residents in favor of Clarhills Properties Corporation.
According to Anunas Barangay Secretary Charmaine Pangilinan, the sheriff, along with a number of Angeles City police officers, arrived on Monday ordering them to self-demolish their properties despite outstanding petitions from the residents.
“November 25, 2022, dapat madedemolish kaso ang nangyari nagfile kami ng motion to quash… kaya hanggang ngayon under litigation pa rin siya,” said Pangilinan.
“Nakakapagtaka lang na bigla silang dumating dito para i-demolish nang walang naaayos na kaso,” she added.
The residents were also only given a three-day time period to self-demolish before what will be a forced eviction on Thursday.
“[Noong] pumunta siya [noong] September 11, Monday, sabi niya [Sheriff], mag-se-self demolition daw kami,” Pangilinan stated.
“Ang sinabi niya po is forced eviction,” added Pangilinan when asked about what will happen if the residents fail to self-demolish within the said period.
The said event led the residents to operate a barricade in the area as a sign of protest against the demolition to run until October 6.
Petition against the demolition
The ownership of the residents to the disputed land is supported by decades-old Certificate of Land Ownership Awards (CLOA) given to them, which were earlier “canceled” in 2020, transferring full ownership to Clarhills Properties Corporation.
As a response, the affected residents filed a petition on September 8 to the Dep
artment of Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board (DARAB) to “prohibit the carrying out of the writ of demolition” under the reasons of the disbarment of Ariel Maglalang, the adjudicator who ordered the cancellation of the land rights of the residents.
Maglalang was disbarred after the Supreme Court found that he forged a court order in 2006 declaring his client’s husband presumably dead after he guaranteed a favorable outcome to an annulment case that he handled.
In an interview with The Angelite, an affected farmer in the disputed area expressed that the said disbarment makes the cancellation of the rights of the residents “questionable”.
“Egana-ganang gewa na pung desisyun about demolition, itang judgment na, void la pu, null la pu [All decisions that he made, and judgments, should be made void and null, so the government should listen],” said the peasant in an interview with The Angelite.
Additionally, the claimants do not have a comprehensive map of the land being claimed.
“Wala silang approved plan ng kinukuha nila, and then hindi nila alam [nasaan] ang kinukuha nila,” Pangilinan said.
In terms of just compensation, the residents, according to Pangilinan, were allegedly offered PHP 30,000 per house as support for the family in the planned demolition. Yet, this is not true according to her, and they have not been given any support and relocation despite the number of families affected in the displacement.
“Walang bargaining na nangyari, kaya nakakapagtaka lang, bakit meron nang compensation na sinasabi na magbibigay sila ng [PHP 30,000], na babayaran na lang daw, pero walang nangyaring ganoon,” Pangilinan stated.
As of writing, the affected citizens are yet to receive assistance from the city government despite repeated requests from the latter.
This is a developing story.
