SC: Western Bicutan part of Libingan ng mga Bayani

The Supreme Court has put an end to a 14-year-old dispute over several lots at Fort Bonifacio in Western Bicutan, Taguig City, that were being claimed by residents and the government agency managing the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

The Court’s First Division chaired by Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno recently dismissed for lack of merit the contention of the Nagkakaisang Maralita ng Sitio Masigasig Inc. and Western Bicutan Lot Owners Association Inc. that then President Ferdinand Marcos opened the lots for public occupancy in 1986.

The justices said the marginal note made by the late dictator on Presidential Proclamation No. 2746 and issued on Jan. 7, 1986, which excluded Western Bicutan from the area under the Libingan ng mga Bayani’s jurisdiction, was not included in the text of the proclamation published in the Official Gazette on Feb. 3 that same year.

Therefore, the marginal note did not become part of the law and could not have been validly implemented, they added.

“The requirement of publication is indispensable to give effect to the law…This Court cannot rely on a handwritten note that was not part of PP 2576 as published. Without publication, the note never had any legal force and effect,” the high tribunal said in a nine-page decision dated June 3 and penned by Sereno.

PP 2746 excluded Barangays Signal Village, Upper Bicutan and Lower Bicutan from the jurisdiction of the Libingan ng mga Bayani that Marcos had created through another proclamation issued in 1967. At the bottom of PP 2746, Marcos wrote: “P.S. This includes Western Bicutan” and affixed his signature.

In October 1987, Marcos’ successor, Corazon Aquino, issued another proclamation reiterating PP 2746 but excluding Western Bicutan. Over the years, informal settlers have occupied the lots, prompting military authorities to undertake demolitions.

In 1999 and 2000, the residents asked the Commission on the Settlement of Land Problems for a formal reclassification of the lots as alienable and disposable in accordance with PP 2476. They also sought the division of the lots and their distribution and sale to bona fide occupants.

This, however, was opposed by the Military Shrine Services-Philippine Veterans Affairs Office which has jurisdiction over the Libingan ng mga Bayani.