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Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Irisan folk deny city execs' ownership of lots
EFFORTS to jumpstart the purchase of an 11-hectare lot at Cypress Village in Barangay Irisan, through a mortgage program, remain on hold following a "poison letter" alleging that ranking city officials own the lots they are occupying.
The letter's spread eventually caused some members of the Blooming Hills Phase I, II and the Irisan Homeowners Community Association Inc. (IHCAI) Phase III to doubt the transaction they have entered into, adding that the National Housing Authority (NHA) disapproved their application for a community mortgage program (CMP) because some of their members failed to comply with the NHA requirements while some encroached in other's properties.
The group filed a motion for reconsideration before the NHA but they have yet to be informed of the agency's decision. The group said it already paid a P2-million equity for the parcels of land.
The agreed payment between the group and the lot owner identified as Peter Santos of the Asia Pine Hill Development Corporation (PHDC) was at P400 per square-meter payable in 25 years and not P1,000 or P3,000 as claimed in the letter.
A copy of the letter obtained by Sun.Star showed it is a nine-page fact sheet purportedly prepared by the Irisan Peoples Action Against Demolition and for Good Governance (Ipadegg), a militant group here.
The document stated that the 11-hectare lot at Cypress now subject of the CMP is owned by Baguio City Representative Mauricio Domogan, former mayor Bernardo Vergara and former vice mayor Betty Lourdes Tabanda.
"The government is pursuing its CMP in partnership with private land developers, claimants, banks, government agencies like the Housing, Land Use and Regulatory Board (HLURB) and the NHA, including prominent politicians who are believed to hold financial interests in the program. The CMP provides legal and official justifications to a highly anomalous program at the expense of the poor. The program appears, however, as a milking cow of corrupt officials and government employees, in cahoots with land developers in the issuance of titles and sale of public lands," a portion of the document said.
But the group belied the document's content and said that Domogan's participation was only to facilitate their negotiation with the lot's owner.
"It is obvious that the allegations is being resorted to damage the reputation of Domogan, Vergara and Tabanda, but we cannot be misled because we know the truth," said the group, adding they have documents to prove that the area they are occupying is not a public land. (RO)
(August 29, 2006 issue)
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