Apas Council wants City Hall to expropriate urban poor lands

The barangay Apas council is blaming the previous City Hall administration for their current urban poor woes.

In a resolution dated May 4, 2012, the barangay Apas Council is asking City Hall to expropriate urban poor settlements already declared as covered by the city’s socialized housing program.

The barangay government blamed the protracted case of sitio San Miguel, where 168 houses are set for demolition to “failure on the part of the City Hall administration way back 1995 – 2000.”

City Hall was headed by then Mayor Alvin Garcia.

The resolution also cited 20 homeowners associations whose lots were already declared under socialized housing by City Hall, “but never been bought for the intended purpose for the underpriviledged and homeless.”

To rectify this failure, the Apas barangay resolution urged City Hall to implement its urban poor program by expropriating the lands declared under socialized housing.

According to Ignacio Labro, President of the Archangels Residence Mergence Inc. (ARMI) he is pleased that finally their long-awaited request was already acted upon by their barangay officials.

“Dugay na namo siyang gipangayo sa city,” (We have been asking that for a very long time already), said Labro

“Para di na gyud mi mahilabtan, gihangop na lang namo ang suggestion,” (We adopt the suggestion so we will not be disturbed anymore.), he added.

The 168 affected families are still waiting for the Office of the Solicitor General though the last intervention was not acted upon due to the “notice without action” stated by Judge Soliver Peras in Regional Trial Court Branch 9 (RTC), who formerly handled the disputed case and later inhibited.

Labro however does not want to blame the past administration.

“Nganong iblame man ang past, ang karon lang maoy sulbaron,” he said.

Labro hopes that by this time, they will be given attention by the court and given their due process.

Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor (DWUP) chief Collin Rosell, said they have endorsed the Apas resolution to Councilor Alvin Dizon, who chairs the committee on housing their request to expropriate the lot under the UDHA. /Tweeny M. Malinao, Correspondent