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Tempers flared as officials of barangays Cogon-Pardo and Inayawan in Cebu City confronted each other over the removal of basketbal backboards donated by opposition figure Jonathan Guardo.
The conflict developed into a boundary dispute over which barangay sitio Mansanitas rightfully belonged.
Officials of Cogon-Pardo, who are associated with the opposition, condemned the removal of the boards in the sitio.
Inayawan officials replaced the boards with those supplied by City Hall. They said the sitio was within their borders.
The tension started last Monday morning when residents discovered the boards, which had Guardo?s name on them, already lying a few meters away from the basketball court.
In their place were backboards with the name of Mayor Tomas Osmeña. The switch may have been made at dawn when nobody was looking, said Cogon-Pardo barangay secretary Merlene Cabreros.
Mansanitas residents, led by sitio coordinator Ester Lapitan, reinstalled Guardo?s boards the same day.
But on Tuesday, around 1 p.m., eight men from barangay Inayawan, led by chief tanod Ricardo Daclan, removed Guardo?s boards again and replaced these with the Cebu City boards.
A heated confrontation broke out between Inayawan barangay councilor Jose Labaya and Cogon-Pardo barangay captain Eugenio Gabuya, who asked who had ordered the change.
Tanods responded, ?Taga-taas (from above).?
Residents had to call the police to diffuse the tension.
Cabreros said the basketball court was actually on a privately owned lot, whose owner allowed Cogon-Pardo to construct a court in 1995.
From 1997 to 2007, Cogon Pardo supplied backboards for the court. For the past two years, the boards were supplied by Guardo, who has since donated boards on three separate occasions, the latest being last July.
Guardo, in a separate interview, said he was ?no longer surprised? about reports of his backboards being removed.
He said he has advised his supporters not to force the issue or put up his boards ?to avoid chaos.?
Guardo accused administration officials of harassment, and doing a disservice to the youths and the neighborhood.
Another confrontation over basketball boards occurred in sitio Sto. Niño 2, barangay Luz.
Eight men claiming to be members of City Hall?s anti-squatters division first ordered ambulant vendors to vacate the area, then worked their way to the sitio?s basketball court which had backboards donated by Lahug barangay captain Mary Ann De los Santos.
The men then tried to remove the boards, saying they were following orders of the Luz barangay council.
Residents stopped the removal and demanded to see the barangay council?s order.
At first the men refused, saying it was ?confidential.?
After resident Carlito Redolosa insisted on seeing the order, the men relented.
Redolosa said the order was only to clear the area of ambulant vendors. Residents blocked the men from removing the boards.
Arj Redolosa, Carlito?s nephew and president of a Sto. Niño 2 youth organization, said De los Santos donated the boards last Saturday at the group?s request.
De los Santos is running for Cebu City?s north district congressional seat in 2010.
She criticized the attempted confiscation in barangay Luz, where she said she donated the boards, worth P19,000 a pair, last Saturday after the Sto. Niño youth asked her to replace the sitio?s dilapidated boards.
She said anti-squatters team could not cite obstruction of motorists or pedestrians as a reason to remove the boards.
?I can think of no other reason behind this than politics,? she said.
She said after that she announced her plan to run for Congress, she was no longer allowed to enter barangay gyms built on the initiative of north district Rep. Raul del Mar.
?They said it?s because the gyms are ?owned? by the sitting congressman. Since when did barangay gyms become private?? she asked.
