THE Shrine Hills Landowners Association (SHLA) members gathered at the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) Tuesday, September 4, to ask the City Council to allow them to use 50 percent of their total land area instead of just 25 percent.

Since Shrine Hills in Matina, Davao City was declared an Urban Ecological Enhancement Sub-Zone (UEESZ) in 2013, landowners said they have been affected by the zoning ordinance and that they will fight for their right to have “decent homes”.

"If this will be implemented, maapektuhan kay ang nakabutang man gud sa polisiya kay 25 percent lang ang gitugot, the remaining 75 percent subject to ecological subzone na (If the new city ordinance will really be implemented, we will be affected because we are only allowed to use 25 percent and the remaining 75 percent will be subject to ecologiocal subzone),” Florante Portillo, vice president of the Shrine Hills Landowners Association, said during an interview with SunStar Davao.

“If, for example, naa lang kay 100 square meters, unya allowed lang ka ug 25 percent ana, how will you provide rooms for your children? (If for example, a landowner only has 100 square meters and you are only allowed 25 percent of that, how will you provide rooms for your children?),” he added.

Nelson Go, also a landowner, said that landslides should not be blamed on them because these are caused by quarrying.

“Yung hinahabol lang namin dito is justice. We are also landowners, we are entitled to build what we wanted to build,” Go said, adding that they also do not want to destroy Shrine Hills but that 25 percent allowable land use is “too small”.