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CEBU CITY, Philippines – Without having to admit that his clients' houses are encroaching on an estero (creek), lawyer Raymond Alvin Garcia told the court that they are also entitled to consultation and relocation before any demolition should be made as provided for in the Urban Housing and Development Act (UDHA).
Garcia is legal counsel of four supporters of his father, former mayor Alvin Garcia, whose houses in Cebu City had been ordered for demolition by City Mayor Tomas Osmeña because these allegedly obstruct an estero in the interior of Barangay (village) Tinago.
Complainants Carmen Monteclaro, Bonifacio Montemayor, Jonah John Rodriguez and Lucio Patalita filed an injunction case against Osmeña and Vicente Mercado, head of Cebu City’s Squatters Prevention and Encroachment Elimination Division (Speed) office.
They claimed that the lot where their houses are built on is not owned by the city government. They also branded the demolition order as a political harassment since they are supporters of former mayor Garcia, Osmeña’s political rival.
Judge Gabriel Ingles of the Regional Trial Court branch 58, said there was a need to establish the petitioners’ right over the property, which they claimed to own and the irreparable injury that the demolition would cause them.
Raymond Garcia said that of the 15 houses in the area, only five houses, owned by his father’s supporters were ordered demolished.
He said the demolition would be a “disregard of the occupants’ right to due process.”
The UDHA, Garcia said, requires the observance of proper relocation prior to any demolition.
Cebu City Legal Officer Joseph Bernaldez countered that the UDHA protects the marginalized.
Section 28 mentions that “eviction may be allowed when a person or entity occupies danger areas such as esteros, railroad tracks, garbage dumps, riverbanks, shorelines, waterways and other public places such as roads, parks and playgrounds.”
Ingles asked Garcia if their defense was an admission that his clients are marginalized and are residing in an estero as stated in the demolition order.
Garcia said no and presented Rodriguez to the witness stand.
Rodriguez testified that only a canal and not a creek is located at the back of the houses.
The canal separates the five demolished houses from that of their neighbors who reportedly lodged the complaint, which led to the issuance of the demolition order.
Mercado said the complaint was Osmeña's basis in issuing the demolition order.
He said the creek of about 6 meters wide used to be found in the area.
But he said the creek was covered when the five houses were built.
What was left was a small canal, which the Department of Public Works and Highways covered with concrete slabs.
Rodriguez said the house that he and his family occupied at the back of the Benedicto building along Zulueta Street in Barangay Tinago.
He said that his grand father, Ricardo Jumao-as bought the house on May 12, 1961 and has lived there since.
He, his mother, a brother, sister and sister-in law moved into the house in 1991.
Rodriguez presented tax declarations paid by Jumao-as as proof of their ownership of the house.
He denied allegations by his neighbors that their house and the four others obstructed the residential areas access to Zulueta Street.
There is still two-meter access road beside their house, said Rodriguez.
There was also not truth to accusations that the five houses obstructed the estero in the area.
Judge Ingles called for a continuation of the hearing on Tuesday.
