Saturday, June 16, 2007 Bilbao threatens to close village road By Nicolas C. Delfin
A BUSINESSMAN threatened to close the road along Barangay Hinoba-an Cadre in Hinoba-an town Saturday.
This as Joaquin Bilbao Jr. got irked with the Department of Public Works and Highway (DPWH) for failure to give attention to his claim for compensation of the right-of-way and other collateral expenses related to occupancy of the 1.7 hectares land property used for the construction of Telfood road constructed by his grandfather sometime in 1940’s.
Bilbao is demanding about P34 million as payment for his property, said Lawyer Ivan Solidum Jr., who is acting as counsel for Bilbao.
Telfood road was meant to connect Barangay Asian also in Hinoba-an to the rest of Negros Occidental.
Solidum said in his letter to Sun.Star Bacolod that his client had already submitted claim to the DPWH Regional Office in Iloilo and even to Governor Joseph Marañon but to no avail until now.
Since 2003, Bilbao has been writing DPWH in Kabankalan regarding this matter but he was only ignored, he said.
“My client is requesting for his claim for a just compensation for four years now on the expropriation of his property but DPWH refuses to have a settlement or a stand on the matter,” Solidum said.
On May 25, however, Bilbao wrote another letter to DPWH-Western Visayas Director Rolando Asis appealing for the approval of compensation but to no avail again.
Worse, DPWH hasn’t communicated with us on the status of my client’s request. So, we guess, we’ll have take legal action on the matter now,” he said.
However, Solidum said DPWH made improvement and concreting Telfood road late last year still without even acknowledging its responsibility to the owner of the land.
“This helplessness had already caused us so much mental anguish and sense of deprivation,” Bilbao said in the same letter.
“So he (Bilbao) is expected to close the highway (Saturday) because no one pays attention to his letter despite several reminders he made,” Solidum said.
Meanwhile, none from DPWH was available for comment Friday.
