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Tuesday, December 16, 2003
FM crony heirs: We own 3 brys.
By Elias O. Baquero
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
A LAND dispute between residents in Moalboal in southwestern Cebu and heirs of a Marcos crony prompted Gov. Pablo Garcia to order the deployment of more policemen to the town.
About 2,00 families and 50 beach resort owners were asked to moved out because their lands are now owned by at least three holding firms.
Saavedra Barangay Captain Virgilio Sabanate said they were surprised last Dec. 3 when the heirs of the late Rebecco Panlilio, reportedly a former crony of the late president Ferdinand Marcos, installed checkpoints in their place.
About 25 security guards from Sikatuna Security Agency were deployed by a certain retired Col. Antonio Medejia and retired Col. Lyle Paras.
The guards, Sabanate said, threatened to shoot them if they will pass the checkpoints without clearance from them. They have even put up bunkhouses, the village chief added.
Medija, a former secretary of Barangay Sambag 1, Cebu City, could not be contacted as of press time.
Sabanate said the Panlilio group claimed 60 lots, including lot 2535 and the 18-kilometer road traversing Barangays Saavedra, Tuble and Poblacion East.
No order yet
Moalboal Mayor Ino-centes “Titing” Cabaron said all parties must settle their dispute in court to avoid bloodshed.
Senior Supt. Maximo Calimlim, Cebu Provincial Police Office director, said he has yet to get word of the governor’s order.
He told Sun.Star that only Governor Garcia and Mayor Cabaron were the ones who talked about the situation in the town, about 89 kilometers southwest of Cebu City.
One Mario Gupiao, a representative of the Panlilio heirs, has sent letters to the families and beach resort owners, informing them that their lands are now owned by Tri-Islands Corporate Holdings Inc., Mango Development Inc. and Universal Holdings Inc.
“The undersigned establishments and individuals, as owners of the real property you are occupying without their consent, are demanding you to vacate and clear the same with your improvements within five days from receipt of this letter,” Gupiao said in his letter dated last Dec. 4.
Panlilio, who died a few years ago, owned Grand Boulevard Hotel in Manila and Puerto Azul in Batangas. He was accused of financing the 1989 coup by Gregorio Honasan, now a senator, and Billy Bibit, now Port of Cebu district collector.
Barangay assembly
Cabaron said the barangay residents will hold an assembly today to discuss the land dispute.
A dialogue is set this Thursday for the residents and representatives of the Panlilio group to settle the problem.
One of the resort owners, Lambert Lim, said he bought his beach lot in good faith, paying P2 million under the name of his company, Cebu Jaya Realty Corp.
Another resort owner, Belgian national Daniel Heindrich, said he also received a notice to vacate from Gupiao. He spent P5 million for the improvement of his beach resort.
Sabanate said the residents, including him, only possess tax declarations of their lands. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources Land Management Bureau did not issue land titles because the land survey was erroneous and has been the subject of petition in court for re-survey.
Mayor Cabaron, meanwhile, said the putting up of checkpoints and the deployment of security guards were done when he was attending a mayors’ league meeting in Manila.
Cabaron said the persons who deployed the security guards did not even have the courtesy of informing the barangay and municipal officials about their purpose.
The mayor said he will arrest all the security guards if the governor will order him to do so, since the checkpoints were set up along the provincial road.
“If they occupied the municipal road, I would have disarmed them and dismantled the checkpoints a long time ago,” Cabaron said.
Security guards A.Q. Andog and J. C. Arreglo said they are just following orders from their employers.
“We are only doing this for a living. They should not go after us because we only want to get our wages,” Andog said.
Buying spree
Cabaron said that as far as he can remember, Panlilio had a buying spree of lands in Moalboal during the Martial Law period.
However, Panlilio failed to transfer the ownership of the lands in the name of his company because of defective deed of sale and other reasons.
Lot 2535, with an area of 24 hectares, is among those claimed by Panlilio’s heirs. The claim was first filed before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 24 and was transferred to the Barili RTC.
The governor refused to comment on the land claims because of the cases pending in court. But he said the provincial road cannot be claimed by a private person. With RHM
(December 16, 2003 issue)
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