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Saturday, January 29, 2005
San Miguel vendors occupy town plaza
By Jay Dooma Balnig
* Mayor Villarico optimistic town will get back property
SAN MIGUEL, Iloilo -- At least 150 vendors are now occupying the public plaza and the covered gym after sheriffs closed the town market Thursday morning following an order from the Supreme Court.
The market, now surrounded with barbwires, was shut after the High Court ruled that the property where it stands rightfully belongs to the heirs of Francisco Medina.
Retired Judge Nelida Medina, one of the heirs, was around when sheriffs Rolando Huele and Camilo Divinagracia served the writ of execution issued by the 14th Municipal Circuit Trial Court.
Though operatives of the Iloilo Provincial Police Office were deployed to assist the sheriffs, the proceeding was conducted in a peaceful manner.
Despite the closure, Mayor Gregorio Villarico is hopeful the Municipal Government will get a favorable decision on its petition for certiorari filed before the Regional Trial Court last Tuesday.
The petition signified their intention to purchase the Medina property.
Medina said that in 1999, the Municipal Government had offered their family P12 million.
But the buyer still has to produce the amount, she said.
The 5,000-square meter land owned by the Medinas cover almost 80 percent of the area being occupied by the public market.
The Medina heirs claimed the property was only rented by the town in the absence of available land for a public market.
During the term of then Mayor Jovito Saclauso, officials claimed the property was already donated by the Medinas to the Municipal Government.
But the officials failed to present a deed of donation.
The Municipal Government had filed a petition for expropriation before the Supreme Court but such was denied in July 28, 2004.
(January 28, 2005 issue)
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