Caloocan council condemns Araneta firm for harassment

MANILA, Philippines - The Caloocan city council passed a resolution Tuesday night condemning a company owned by Gregorio Araneta III for allegedly harassing the residents of Pangarap Village.

An executive of Araneta’s firm, Carmel Development Inc., said killing of CDI community relation officer Ricardo (not Danny as earlier reported) Mago shortly before noon on Tuesday “could be related to the company’s land dispute with the residents of Barangays 181 and 182, located inside what is known as Pangarap Village.”

Mago was gunned down by two unidentified assailants on a motorcycle a few hours before Mayor Oscar Malapitan met with more than 100 Pangarap Village residents who are seeking help against what they described to be “a systematic harassment” by CDI.

No power, water

District 1 Councilor Karina Teh sponsored the resolution “condemning the repressive acts of CDI against residents of the two barangays and urging the company to allow basic services providers such as Meralco (Manila Electric Co.) and Maynilad (Water Services Inc.) to enter the village by opening the main access roads that it closed in the heat of the legal dispute.”

Teh told The STAR that CDI banned the entry of all public utility vehicles servicing the residents of the two barangays and refused representatives of Meralco and Maynilad access to the village, which led to the cutoff of water and electricity to their homes.

Malapitan said the local government has been trying to help the residents “but it can only do so much, considering the legal matters involved.”

Teh presented several documents, including letters of Meralco to CDI field operation manager Ser Ryan Arojo, requesting that their personnel be allowed access to the village to conduct repairs and meter readings, but she said “those pleas went unanswered.”

A barangay official said the meter readers “were harassed by the guards and were not allowed to enter, rendering Meralco to base its billing on estimated costs.”

Future MRT depot

Formerly called Barrio Makatipo, Pangarap Village is composed of Barangays 181 and 182 and has an aggregate area of 156 hectares. The total population is estimated to be close to 40,000 persons.

According to a memorandum issued by CDI to Barangay 182 chairman Rowell Brin, the property is “being considered by the government as the future Metro Rail Transit depot for MRT 7 that will run from EDSA to Tungkong Mangga, San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan.”

Pangarap Village became a resettlement area by virtue of a presidential decree issued by then President Ferdinand Marcos. Araneta is married to Marcos’ youngest daughter, Irene.

Most of the original settlers were employees and awardees of Malacanang, according to Caloocan officials.

A source said Araneta’s company laid claim to the land and won in the Supreme Court, but the residents have filed an appeal.

CDI: No harassment

Arojo told The STAR that residents are not being harassed and “the decisions being made as regards to the refusal of the company to allow basic services providers to enter are purely management prerogative of the rightful owners.”

In his letter to Brin, Arojo said the company decided to strengthen its security measures by closing all ingress and egress in the village “to check all persons coming in and out of the property and to minimize, if not stop the proliferation of crimes in the area.”

He said the residents’ problem with Meralco and other service providers are also legal matters they have to solve on their own.

“You have to check if they really don’t have (electric) power because it seems it’s not the case at night,” Arojo said.