Tuesday, October 09, 2007 Editorial: The Margot surprise
THE people of Margot have suddenly found themselves in danger of being summarily evicted from their place of abode, apart from already being fenced off to limit their access to and from the barangay.
The culprits are apparently foreigners, Lorenzo McCrann and the McCrann, MsCrann Inc., which allegedly claims ownership of almost the entire barangay.
This piece of bad news comes surprisingly at a time when an interchange for Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) is being pushed aggressively in that area by no less than two of Angeles City’s prominent leaders, Secretary Edgardo Pamintuan and congressman Carmelo F. Lazatin.
A couple of weeks ago, Pamintuan was rumored to be the owner of a piece of real estate in Margot, which he later denied in a letter to the editor of this paper. With the McCranns claiming ownership of Margot, Pamintuan’s alleged ownership of lands in that area seems disputed now, happily not in his favor.
But even then, the surprise move of the McCranns in harassing the Margot folk and insisting on their ownership gives rise to suspicion that there is something more about the proposed Margot interchange than meets the eye.
For this reason, a thorough and deeper investigation into this claim case is in order. For one thing, it is said the McCrann claim has no strong basis, according to the barangay official, citing related court cases that had been dismissed.
In fact, we urge Pamintuan and Lazatin to lead the investigation, if only to further disabuse any residual notion that they have personal interest in their strong and relentless advocacy for the Margot interchange.
More importantly, the fate of their Margot constituencies is now being challenged and put at risk by the new ownership claim on their barangay.
As both former mayors of Angeles City, it behooves them to go out of their way to help them establish the truth or falsehood of such claim.
Needless to say, Mayor Francis “Blueboy” Nepomuceno and the rest of the Lazatin old guards in the City Council can join hands in bringing all this to light.
Who knows, bigger surprises may be waiting to be uncovered.
