Courageous move

MANILA, Philippines - House Bill 1649 sponsored by Rep. Amado Bagatsing, published in the Philippine STAR on March 5, 2009, to amend Urban Development Housing Act of 1992 (RA-7279) seeking stiffer penalties for professional squatters and coddlers from the government, is a “kudos” to the proponent.

Safeguarding public and private property intruded by informal settlers has been a problem for so long due to interventions for political ambitions.

The problem is getting out of hand, as these people invade not only public and private property, but also take refuge along canals, river banks, available space under bridges causing clogging, blocking of waterways resulting to floods causing death among settlers.

The lucrative business of letting people invade vacant areas for a fee coupled with promises or assurances of legal, permanent relocation centers are the very reasons for this sort of pilgrimage to the city and other parts of the country. The creation of a “community mortgage program” by the government to make illegal entry legal is one way of encouraging said practice.

This program also violates some provisions of the National Building Code and the use of the road right-of-way from the affected subdivision for its usage without conformity and approval.

We were victims of this when our open space donated to the Quezon City Government was taken over illegally, almost occupied with concrete structures, subdivided and ready for sale. We fought and I led with courage and strong determination to get it back, having all the documents to help the government recover it for us. I sought the help of our beloved Mayor to help us recover it for the generations to come. It took us almost three years to successfully recover the same, now no longer an “eye sore” but a fully developed open space turned into a beautiful park through the strong intervention of our able and dedicated achiever, our honorable Mayor, Feliciano Belmonte Jr.

We salute the courage of Congressman Bagatsing for the proposed amendments for the protection of public lands as well as hard earned property of private individuals who can never recover the same because of fear.

We recommend the creation of a special agency to be handled by retired military men with untarnished reputation to handle investigation of complaints of this nature, and dissolve existing agencies that are not effective in this regard to avoid duplicity of functions. — ARSENIA V. AVILA, president, Homeland Happy Homes II Homeowners Association, Inc., Barangay Sauyo QC.