AFP Visayas Command to move out of Cebu City

PRIME LAND | A soldier guards the main gate of Camp Lapulapu, the headquarters of the Visayas Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in Cebu City, in this file photo. The Cebu provincial government wants to get the 44-hectare property, now prime commercial land, occupied by the camp. (Photo courtesy of CEBU DAILY NEWS)

CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — The Armed Forces of the Philippines Visayas Command (Viscom) is set to move out of its current headquarters in Cebu City after the Cebu provincial government decided to take back around 16 hectares of lots that formed part of Camp Lapulapu in Barangay Apas here.

Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has already started conducting a survey on a 1,050-ha property located between the towns of Tuburan and Tabuelan in northwestern Cebu where the AFP can transfer.

Garcia has been pushing to repossess what are now prime lots inside the camp, amid their exponential rise in land value being right within a major economic growth zone in the city, as it adjoins the Cebu IT Park, the former Cebu airport ground that is now a 27-ha, mix-use hub that houses most of Cebu’s multimillion-peso business process outsourcing industry.

“Rest assured that my decision will always be for the benefit of the Cebuanos. [We hope to have] more revenues for the province so that I can translate these to more infrastructure and services for the Cebuanos without disposing of our hard-earned assets,” said Garcia.

In October 1959, Cebu province, under then Gov. Jose Briones, donated 47 parcels of land with a total area of 806,943 square meters to the 3rd Military Area, “to be used for military exercises, camps and offices.”

The 3rd Military Area later became the Viscom, which has operational and administrative jurisdiction over all Armed Forces units operating in the Visayas.

Deed of donation violation

In February 1994, the province withdrew the donation upon learning that the AFP violated one of the important conditions in the deed of donation: the land should only be used for military purposes.

Provincial officials then led by the late Gov. Vicente dela Serna found out that only 14 of the 47 parcels of donated lots were used for military-related purposes while the rest were used as housing sites.

In 2005, a year after she first assumed as governor, Garcia started the province’s move to get back the lots occupied by Camp Lapulapu.

Garcia said the AFP, the Department of National Defense, and the Cebu provincial government have created a technical working group that will facilitate the transfer of the military camp to its new location.

The transfer was also discussed when Garcia met with Defense Secretary Jose Faustino Jr. and AFP Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Bartolome Vicente Bacarro last week.

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