‘DENR should resolve relocation site issue’

THE issue on whether the titled relocation site in barangay Paknaan is a timberland or not should first be resolved with the Department of Environment or the Bureau of Lands.

Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Virginia Palanca-Santiago gave this recommendation after she visited yesterday the 6.5-hectare relocation site in barangay Paknaan, Mandaue City.

Santiago was accompanied by both opposing parties: the Mandaue City government represented by City administrator lawyer James Abadia and the complainants represented by Roberto Litaba, leader of the relocation beneficiaries.

The beneficiaries filed a complaint at the Visayas Ombdusman’s office claiming the relocation site was a timberland.

Litaba and 19 other residents of sitio Rosal in barangay Oril (formerly Philcadan area) were found to be encroaching the three- meter easement of a river in barangay Banilad. They were occupying an adjacent lot owned by San Miguel Corp., which helped the affected residents to be relocated.

SMC pledged to give P2 million for the relocation, and P1 million was already received by the city through a deed of donation.

The residents were listed as beneficiaries of the Paknaan relocation site but they later refused to be relocated because they claimed through their research that the area was a timberland. They instead waited for the city government to give them a share of the SMC donation to the city.

Abadia, for his part, said the city could give the allotted P17,000 for each beneficiary since the donation was for the city’s urban development.

However, he said that if the beneficiaries would wish to avail of the P17,000 and not the relocation offer, then they should first remove their houses from the danger zones. Correspondent Norman V. Mendoza