Litigation hell
Amid the legal fireworks that have been one back-and-forth affair and the blame game engaged in by the lawyer of the families, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama and the mayor’s critics, a sort of status quo has descended on the residents of sitio San Miguel, barangay Apas in Cebu City.
The only thing that would upend that status quo, the one thing being dreaded by the families is the actual demolition of their homes, which they’ve built and lived in since the ’60s.
But the court sheriff isn’t too keen on staging the demolition in Apas anytime soon based on the text threats that he received, which drove him to seek police protection. The police, as usual, will be counted on to make sure the demolition would proceed peacefully.
But unless they’ve resigned themselves to their fate, the Apas demolition will be anything but a peaceful activity. A civilized demolition is like a divorce, a living contradiction in terms.
And these Apas families aren’t urban poor settlers by any means. Most of them are families of retired soldiers and police, who’ve spent majority of their lives joining wars to protect the country and are now content to spend the rest of their lives in simple comfort.
That comfort is now under siege by a court order that upheld a previous Court of Appeals ruling declaring ownership of the 4.7-hectare property that the families lived on to a centenarian, Mariano Godinez.
The families are merely hanging on the threads of promises given by Rama that they won’t be displaced. It is the threat of a violent demolition that’s keeping Godinez from reclaiming the property, which is both sad and alarming.
Without prejudice to both the lot owner and the families, it falls on the city government to decide whether or not to buy the property itself on behalf of the families or provide them with a relocation site.
As admitted by the lawyer for the families, Benjamin Militar, the court has ignored their presence and has barely acknowledged the city government in the case even with an Office of the Solicitor General pleading.
Rather than launch into a verbal assault on Rama, Militar may want to consider working with him and other officials into convening a united legal front on behalf of the families before the court.
Understandably the families want to remain, but the country’s legal system, which already ruled in favor of the lot owner, is chockful of provisions and laws galore that their pleading will be wrapped up in litigation hell while the demolition team stands by ready on a moment’s notice.
And we’re not even talking about the withdrawal of the incumbent judge on the case. It’s time for the city government and the families to sit together and plan their defense. It’s the only feasible solution to their problem.
