BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan ordered the City General Services Office and the City Legal Office to work out the filing of the appropriate charges against the embattled operator of the city-owned Asin hot springs after he allegedly dismantled the gate and removed the notices that were placed around the fence informing the public of his eviction from the city-owned property.
The local chief executive said aside from the filing of the contempt of court charges against Roger Sinot, criminal charges of malicious mischief will also be filed against him for allegedly forcibly removing the temporary gate installed by the GSO in the premises of the property and the notices installed around the gate informing the public that the swimming pool area is a city-owned property and that Sinot is no longer the resort operator based on an order from a Benguet court.
Assistant General Services Officer Eugene Buyucan reported during Monday’s regular department heads meeting that they already served the eviction notice against Sinot for the latter to vacate the premises of the city-owned Asin hot springs pursuant to a court order and immediately installed a temporary gate within the swimming pool area apart from installing notices informing the public that Sinot is no longer the operator of the city-owned resort.
However, Sinot, together with his cohorts, allegedly dismantled the gate and removed the notices installed by the GSO personnel in the area as well as posting in the social media a certification issued by the municipal assessor’s office of Tuba certifying among others that the local government of Baguio has no property in the said area.
Domogan argued that the people of Tuba know for a fact that the Baguio city government owns the property which was purchased in 1935 from the Ramirez family but the property was not segregated from the title of the Ramirez family.
He also ordered the City Assessor’s Office to fastrack the segregation of the Ramirez property so that the appropriate tax declaration could be issued by the Tuba municipal assessor’s office in favour of the city so that Sinot will not continue to use this as alibi for this continued appropriation of the city property.
According to him, the city will secure its property within the jurisdiction of Tuba and he is wondering why Sinot insists on occupying the property when his eviction was ordered by a local court.
Domogan expressed his disappointment over Sinot’s actions, saying that his actions deserve the appropriate counter action from the local government to invoke its rights over the property that it purchased from the Ramirez family and that the legitimacy of its ownership was upheld by the Benguet court through a decision and subsequently ordered Sinot’s eviction from the property and ordering him to pay his supposed rentals through the years for the use of the government property.
By Dexter A. See
