Taguig-Makati tension heats up

The tension between officials of the cities of Taguig and Makati further heated up on Thursday after Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay Jr. announced that he would file administrative and criminal charges against Taguig law enforcers who reportedly harassed his city’s engineering team.

Binay said a team from the Makati Engineering Department was on its second day of conducting a land survey in Barangay Southside when it was surrounded by a dozen members of Taguig’s Public Order and Safety Office (Poso) at 10 a.m. on Thursday.

The barangay is part of the “Inner Fort” which the Court of Appeals handed back to Makati in a ruling last month following a territorial dispute with Taguig that had gone on for two decades.

The incident happened a day after Taguig officials filed a petition for the Court of Appeals justice who penned the July 30 decision to inhibit herself from the case.

Binay said law enforcers of Taguig ordered the Makati team composed of engineers Divine Torres and Cesar Pajuelas and draftsmen Arlan Bereda and Arman Mantilla to stop whatever they were doing and return to their city.

Makati policemen were immediately deployed to the area to prevent a confrontation between employees of the two city governments, Binay added.

He said he had ordered the city legal department to file administrative and criminal charges against the Taguig personnel.

“Since when is it illegal to conduct a land survey? For 20 years, Southside has been neglected. We are correcting this injustice,” Binay said, adding that they were planning to repair and rehabilitate roads in the area, followed by the construction of public facilities.

“This area is just a stone’s throw away from BGC [Bonifacio Global City] but the roads are not even paved; they are dirt roads. Where are the benefits they keep talking about?” he asked.

Taguig Mayor Lani Cayetano, meanwhile, asked Binay to wait for a final ruling to be handed down on the territorial dispute in BGC “and avoid any act that would only sow confusion among residents and business establishments in the area.”

In Cayetano’s version of Thursday’s incident, the Makati engineering team was conducting surveys in Southside, referred to by Taguig officials as Palar Village, “without authority from Taguig City government or barangay officials.”

She said the Makati team was merely invited to the Taguig City Hall to discuss the matter. But en route to city hall, members of the Makati police arrived and took the engineering team.

According to Taguig’s Poso members, one of the Makati policemen, a certain SPO1 Castrillo, seemed like he was about to draw his service firearm.

At the same time, Cayetano hit the Makati City government for posting signs about its antiplastic ordinance in the disputed barangays.

“Let’s not make haste and do things with caution. We appeal to Mayor Binay to wait for a final ruling on the territorial dispute,” she said in a statement.

Binay, however, has insisted that the appellate court’s order was immediately executory. While Taguig may appeal the ruling, Makati is no longer restrained from assuming jurisdiction over the area, he said.