Smokey Mountain residents laud SC decision

Residents from Smokey Mountain are expected to troop to the Supreme Court (SC) any day soon to express their gratitude to its magistrates for affirming the legality of the Smokey Mountain Development Reclamation Project (SMDRP).

Community leader Nenita Santiago and village leader William Morallos, in a statement, said they are planning to lead a group of Smokey Mountain residents to march to the SC office along Padre Faura Street.

“We will forever be indebted to them and to the presidents of the present and previous administrations for upholding and bringing the SMDRP to its completion despite the many problems that have haunted it all these years,” Santiago said.

For the last 20 years, the residents said they have been battling for the SC to confirm and uphold the legality of the SMDRP.

Francisco Chavez opposed the project, saying that he did not question the 1993 deal between the government and R-II Builders to reclaim land in the area when he was still the solicitor general because the land had been under water and could not be sold.

He argued that R-II Builders and the National Housing Authority (NHA) could not reclaim foreshore and submerged lands because only the Public Estates Authority (PEA) was authorized to embark on such a project.

He added that they also did not get the approval of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). Neither could R-II Builders stake its claim on the reclaimed land because no public bidding ever took place.

The SC, however, upheld the validity of the project, saying the NHA has the power to reclaim lands and transfer these to its private partner without a public bidding.

“Now, we can proceed with the many projects that have been stalled by that legal problem,” Santiago said.

She said they have great plans for their village, called Paradise Heights. They intend to build the first-ever “green church” in the world on a 2,000-square meter (sqm) lot donated by R-II Builders.

Santiago said their village has a handicraft and livelihood center for women, Botika ng Bayan drugstore, basketball court, and rows of five-storey residential structures that they can call their own.

Each family is given a 32-sqm condominium with decent livable space for dining, kitchen, living room, toilet and bath, and a loft to be used as a bedroom.

Among their future projects are the construction of a day care and feeding center, public market, e-trading facility, compost processing system for the remaining garbage in the area, and a center for special children that had been planned for the 21-hectare housing complex. – Evelyn Macairan