BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan called on local residents to understand the reason why the local government entered into a compromise agreement with the informal settlers of the 5,000-square meter Benguet-Ifugao-Bontoc-Apayao-Kalinga (BIBAK) property along Harrison Road for them to voluntarily demolish their illegal structures that were erected on the government property on or before June 30, 2017.
The local chief executive explained the compromise agreement will guarantee the peaceful means of dismantling the illegal structures, entail lesser inconvenience to the public and is considered a ‘win-win solution’ among the involved parties.
“It is still best for us to strike a compromise agreement on the matter because we do not know what will happen once we will implement a forcible demolition of the illegal structures that were erected on the government property. We are just grateful that the informal settlers have realized the fact that they illegally built their structures within the government property,” Domogan stressed.
Earlier, the affected informal settlers committed to the city that they will be the ones to demolish their illegal structures within the property on or before June 30, 2017 and that their failure to do so will compel the local government to demolish the illegal structures by July 1, 2017.
Further, the informal settlers committed in their sworn commitment to the local government that they will voluntarily withdraw all the cases that they filed with the various courts against the city as a sign of good will on their part.
The 58 illegal structures were supposed to be demolished by the members of the city demolition team late last month but the timely filing of their commitment paved the way for the temporary lifting of the demolition order until the end of June this year.
According to the mayor, there is a need for all concerned agencies and the local government to closely work together for the preparation of the master development plan of the BIBAK property after all the illegal structures within the 5,000-square meter property shall have been demolished.
He emphasized as much as possible, the local government does not want that there will be innocent individuals who will be injured once there will be a forcible demolition of structures in the area that it is still best for the city to explore all possible ways of dismantling the illegal structures without inflicting injuries to innocent persons.
He claimed what is important now is that the informal settlers recognized the fact that they illegally constructed their structures within the government property amidst their efforts to contest the legality of the demolition order issued against them which was dismissed by a local court.
The informal settlers tried to contest the validity of the demolition order issued by the city against them before a local court but it was subsequently dismissed considering that they do not actually own the property and that the structures were constructed without the appropriate building permits issued by the city building official.
By Dexter A. See
