ANGELES CITY – Land developer Clarkhills on Friday clarified its commitment with the city government on the Barangay Anunas land issue in response to the published letter of Mayor Carmelo “Pogi” Lazatin claiming it reneged on it and warned of instituting expropriation procedures.
This, as it expressed its willingness to donate land for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 4PH housing project to relocate indigents and tenants.
Punto! decided to publish here the letter of Clarkhills legal counsel Atty. Gener C. Endona to the mayor dated Feb. 9, 2024.
HON. CARMELO G. LAZATIN, JR.
City Mayor, Angeles City
The Honorable Mayor Lazatin:
I am writing on behalf of Clarkhills Properties Corporation pertaining to
your letter addressed to its President, Mr. Oscar A. Torralba dated
February 8, 2024 which states that Clarkhills reneged in its commitment
that “no demolition shall be carried out while the City Government
conducts a mapping and tagging of affected families.”
I and President Torralba were present when Clarkhills made the
commitment to stop the demolition during our meeting of November
29, 2024 until a census and tagging of occupants is completed by Atty.
Suller. In fact, Clarkhills did not proceed with any demolition as it has
promised until after the Christmas season.
Upon the submission of the census of occupants by Councilor Atty.
Suller, another meeting was held attended by the undersigned on
behalf of Clarkhills. In this meeting, Clarkhills stated its intention to
donate one hectare of the land for the relocation of the indigent
occupants of the property and that another one hectare can be sold to
the City at its zonal value. However, you have proposed if Clarkhills can
donate 3.5 hectares of land for relocation and that the City shall offer to
buy another 3.5 hectares at its zonal value. This is a total of 7-hectare site
for relocation. I stated that the matter shall be referred to Clarkhills who
is willing only to donate one hectare and sell another hectare for the
relocation site.
In that meeting also, I have emphasized that Clarkhills shall proceed with
the implementation of the Writ of Demolition by fencing only the vacant
lots and demolishing the commercial buildings and big houses, without
touching small houses and those involving the indigents. We remain
true to this commitment in our recent implementation of the writ as we
have notified you in a letter dated January 17, 2024.
Clarkhills Board decided to find ways on relocation of indigent families.
One of which is the current Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino (4PH)
Program of the Department of Human Settlement and Urban
Development (DHSUD). Clarkhills coordinated with DHSUD pertaining
to this housing project. This project refers to the construction of 4-storey
residential building that can house 20 housing units per floor or 80 units
per building at 27 square meters per unit. Clarkhills intend to donate
one hectare for this project. A total of six (6) structures can be built on
one hectare equivalent to 480 housing units. There will also be enough
spaces for a Clubhouse, pocket park and optional pool area, space for
rentable commercial units and half-court basketball. The 4PH Program of
the DHSUD can be accessed on their website dhsud.gov.ph.
This is the reason why we have sent you a letter dated January 10, 2024,
copy furnished Atty. Suller and the City Social Welfare and Development
Office, requesting for the names of the indigent families in the area
considering that the submitted census did not tag the occupants as
indigents. We have been actually requesting for the list of indigent families in the area since April 2023, upon the instance of the Philippine
Commission on Urban Poor. But until now, none has been submitted.
This is crucial to determine if there be a need for additional land to be
donated to DHSUD for the relocation. And if ever there be few indigent
families, that the area of their units be increased accordingly. The project
is the best that we can offer without cost to the LGU and can be
implemented immediately.
Please allow me to state that we cannot close our eyes to several
occupants of the property who have constructed commercial buildings
in the area, “tenants” who have long sold the land to third persons, big
houses/mansions/, rented staycations with swimming pools, rented
apartment units, and rented houses. You can even see them posted
online and have gone viral. We would like to prioritize the actual
indigent families, tenants who have not sold the land and their respective immediate families in the intended decent and habitable
relocation site. We also commit that until a relocation site by DHSUD
is realized, houses of indigent families, houses of original CLOA
holders who have not sold their land and houses of their immediate
family members would NOT be demolished.
We again reiterate our request for the submission of their names and
identification as (1) Indigent household; (2) original tenants who have
not sold any portion of the land to third persons and who are actually on
the lot; and (2) Children of original tenants who have not sold any
portion of the land to third persons and who actually occupy the lot. We
need to submit their names to DHSUD for the intended project.
With the foregoing commitment, Clarkhills cannot be said to have no
humanitarian concern when what it has been occupying is the vast tract
of vacant lots (more or less 65 hectares) and what it has been
demolishing are commercial buildings and big houses and big
structures, not concerning the poor and marginalized occupants of the
land.
We fully understand your genuine concern for the affected families,
being the pater familia of Angeles City. Hence, balancing your duties
vis-a-vis the right of Clarkhills and the general welfare of your
constituents is indeed a very hard act to perform. We, at Clarkhills also
exert all efforts for a well-balanced decision in the implementation of
the writ of demolition. We humbly apologize should there be loose
communications and matters not fully understood.
Your decision to expropriate the land to award them to actual occupants
is within the right of the LGU to file. However, Clarkhills also has the right
to defend its own property from involuntary taking, which should be for
“public purpose”, with payment of “just compensation” and with due
observance to “equal protection of the law”.
We remain committed to utmost cooperation within the bounds of law
to have a peaceful settlement of this matter. We reiterate our request for
the tagging of occupants in the area so that we can present our alternative offer for relocation, in partnership with DHSUD and the LGU
at no cost to the City.
Thank you very much.
