10 injured in Malabon demolition

Attempts by the city government to prevent bloodshed arising from the court-ordered demolition of the Gozon property in Tonsuya, Malabon City occupied by some 4,000 squatter families yesterday failed as some 10 persons were injured after the landowners’ demolition crew started tearing down their houses at midmorning.

Still, the timely intervention of City Mayor Canuto Oreta, together with Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP) chairman Percival Chavez, Malabon-Navotas Rep. Ricky Sandoval and Northern Police District Office (NPDO) director Chief Superintendent Noe Wong, prevented the initial skirmish from further escalating.

The opposing groups, both previously maintaining a hardline stance, finally agreed to a moratorium temporarily stopping the demolition for a week and also breaking the impasse in marathon discussions at the Mayor’s Office at the Malabon City Hall.

"The court decision (to demolish) will still be enforced, but during the break, affected residents have agreed to a voluntary demolition of their houses. This as we try to find a place where they can resettle," Oreta told The STAR.

The mayor has identified two prospective sites in Barangays Dampalit and Panghulo, pending further discussions on acquisition price and related matters with the property owners.

"We are sorry this had to happen. We hoped to forestall the violence by filing the TRO with the court because although not a party to this conflict, we have a moral obligation to help the homeless and underprivileged of our city," city legal Officer Roberto Lim Jr. said, adding that they have withdrawn the petition after learning the feuding parties have agreed to forego the demolition, even if only temporarily.

Antonio Criss Jr., Barangay Tonsuya chairman and negotiator for the affected residents, lauded the presence of Oreta’s group at the site.

He said city mayor’s intervention diffused the otherwise already explosive situation. He claimed that almost 20 residents were injured during the actual demolition and were treated at the barangay health center.

The number could not be immediately confirmed by The STAR. He claimed that the four ambulances at the site only took care of members of the demolition crew hurt in the melee.

A team of medical personnel of the Pagamutang Bayan ng Malabon led by Dr. Abraham Gan, nurse Julius Picache and Rodeo Ramirez told The STAR they initially treated some 10 injured persons, five with gunshot wounds and mostly demolition crew, and were taken to undisclosed hospitals for treatment. Picache said some of the injured were hit by stray bullets.

A pillbox exploded on Letre Road some three meters away from this writer as he was interviewing members of the demolition team going out of the area through the gate of the Gozon-owned Our Lady of Lourdes Eternal Park after they were ordered out even as negotiations were going on shortly before 2 p.m. at City Hall.

Members of the NPDO Mobile Force said the improvised bomb was "clean," meaning it contained no shrapnel, then pushed back the residents some 200 yards away from the demolition team.

"We had to confiscate the firearms to preserve the peace and have sent the shotgun seized from a security guard to the crime lab for ballistic test," Wong said.

He said the guard, caught with a gun while on the second floor of a house being demolished, had no business carrying a firearm during demolition.

Oreta has also ordered relief goods consisting of rice, sardines, noodles, coffee and sugar, distributed to the estimated 50 to 60 families, whose houses have been torn down earlier by some 500 hired wrecking crew from Tondo in Manila. These families, he said, will be temporarily housed at the Tonsuya covered court.

Oreta and his group personally went to the demolition site along Letre Road in Barangay Tonsuya shortly before noon yesterday and brokered a truce between the affected residents and the wrecking crew, including a number of security guards from the adjacent Our Lady of Lourdes Eternal Park, also owned by the Gozon family.

Oreta convinced the representatives of the affected community and the landowners’ representatives to discuss the matter instead on the negotiating table.