LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Some thirteen structures illegally constructed by claimants of portions of the Puguis communal forest were demolished by combined personnel of the municipal government, police operatives, and volunteers.
La Trinidad Municipal Police Station Chief Police Maj. Cleff Vencio disclosed that the demolished illegal structures included 2 concrete structures, 11 shanties and 5 tombs with skeletal remains of still unidentified persons.
“We encountered resistance from the occupants of the illegal structures at the start of the demolition but we had to explain to them we were just doing our job pursuant to existing law, rules and regulations, and such demolition was covered by lawful orders from the municipal chief executive, Mayor Romeo K. Salda,” Maj. Vencio stressed.
Previously, the Municipal Government attempted to demolish most of the illegal structures erected over the town’s communal forest but the same had been met by strong resistance from the claimants who invoked their supposed valid claims over the communal forest.
Further, some of the illegal structures that were demolished in the past demolition activities were reportedly reconstructed by some of the claimants.
Thursday’s demolition of the illegal structures within portions of the Puguis communal forest was anchored on a demolition order issued by Mayor Salda covering the structures of the informal settlers who have time and again resisted the dismantling of their illegal structures.
Vencio disclosed that some 150 uniformed and non-uniformed police personnel were deployed in the four sites while more than 100 personnel of the municipal government and volunteers worked together to dismantle the illegal structures.
According to him, some of the claimants tried to show to them purported court orders stopping the scheduled demolition of the illegal structures, but they were not able to show to the concerned authorities genuine documents showing that the court has restrained the demolition in the said watershed.
The police official also reportedly intervened when tension started to heat up between the members of the municipal demolition team and some of the claimants as some of the claimants are his old time friends but he explained to them they were just doing their job based on the valid demolition order issued for the dismantling of the illegal structures erected over the communal forest.
He explained that the skeletal remains taken from some of the tombs that were demolished were subjected to inspection by elements of the Scene of the Crime Operation (SOCO) called for the purpose of examining the same were already brought to the Buyagan public cemetery after it was proven that the skeletal remains belong to humans.
Vencio called on family members and relatives of the persons who were buried in the tombs that were demolished to coordinate with the concerned offices of the municipal government for them bring home the bones of their departed love ones or conduct the appropriate ritual prior to being buried again.
By Hent
