RESIDENTS of Sitio Avocado in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City had feared eviction as early as 2007.
On Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2019, their dispute with the University of the Philippines (UP) Cebu over the latter’s lot ended in the demolition of their houses.
Using sledge hammers, the demolition personnel pounded on the multi-story concrete structures along the main road in Lahug.
The structures located across the barangay hall, which include an eatery and a bakery, were built after a fire hit the area in 2015.
According to the Cebu City Government’s Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor (DWUP), the demolition order covers 67 structures belonging to 77 families who were occupying UP Cebu’s 2,000-square-meter lot in Sitio Avocado.
Officials of UP Cebu, which plans to use the lot for its expansion project, has been coordinating with the City Government since 2013 to recover the property, which was donated by the Provincial Government to UP for educational purposes. The state university failed to do so since the lot was occupied by some 100 families at the time.
UP plans to build the P65 million UP Cebu High School building on the lot.
On Wednesday morning, the court sheriff and the demolition team arrived at the site to implement the court order and were greeted by angry residents who questioned the legality of the demolition order. Policemen also arrived to secure the area.
By noon, the team had managed to start tearing down three concrete structures.
Court Sheriff Reynaldo Enolpe said the order was due for implementation after Regional Trial Court Branch 23 Presiding Judge Generosa Labra denied the motion of lawyer Collin Rosell, legal counsel of the affected families, who sought to clarify if the rules on the execution of the writ of demolition had been followed.
Rosell questioned the legality of the implementation of the order because the court sheriff, he said, could not present any proof that the court had given City Hall and the National Housing Authority a copy of the notice of demolition.
He said that as a mandatory procedure, the local government unit should be given 45 days to act on the notice and designate a relocation site.
Rosell clarified that the homeowners are not opposing the demolition. They only wanted to make sure that the rules were followed.
For his part, DWUP head Simeon Romarate said the first day of the demolition was peaceful.
The residents, he said, did not ask for a relocation site but they requested to borrow trucks so they could transport their things to their respective hometowns.
For those who needed temporary shelter, the DWUP prepared a makeshift house at the Gawad Kalinga building in Barangay Lorega, which can accommodate around 60 families.
UP Cebu officials earlier offered the families a relocation site in Sitio Nivel Hills in Barangay Busay, which has 84 home lots, but the families reportedly did not take the offer.
The DWUP also recently offered them another relocation site in Busay, but the families again refused reportedly because the area is not accessible.
UP Cebu’s legal battle with the informal settlers began after a fire gutted 89 houses in Sitio Avocado on Dec. 29, 2015.
Days after the fire, UP Cebu officials moved to fence the property to keep the occupants from rebuilding their houses, but city officials intervened.
UP Cebu Chancellor Liza Corro filed on Jan. 8, 2016 a complaint against Cebu City officials and asked the court to prevent officials from entering the premises or distributing the lot to the informal settlers.
The case was dismissed, and the lot occupants were able to go back and rebuild their houses.
A socio-economic survey conducted by the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor later showed that many of the houses in the sitio were already sub-let by their original occupants, some for commercial use.
To finally recover the property, UP Cebu had filed in 2016 a complaint for forcible entry against the lot occupants.
The Regional Trial Court resolved the case in favor of UP Cebu after three years and set the demolition on July 23, 2019. The demolition did not push through that day, though, since the court sheriff did not show up.
The lot is part of the five parcels of land, having a total area of 14 hectares, that the Province donated to UP in 1963 for educational use.
The informal settlers managed to remain in Sitio Avocado over the years with the help of City Hall officials, some of whom made election promises to prevent their eviction. (from PAC of Superbalita Cebu/LRC)