Ecotourism project to displace 300 families

Some 300 households from a fishing community are being told to leave to give way for a large ecotourism project in Maragondon town, Cavite province, according to a militant group.

Families in Barangay (village) Sta. Mercedes, also known by its former name Patungan, were issued anew a notice to vacate the land by the private land developer, MTV Investment Properties Holdings Corp.

MTV stands for Marie Theresa Virata, who, according to the company president, Andrew Deyto, is a relative of Cesar Virata, the prime minister during the Marcos regime.

A copy of the notice was furnished the Inquirer by Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) on June 26. It was dated March 20, but KMP claimed it was received by the residents only on the third week of June.

The notice was addressed to Lea Lagarde, one of the residents, and was signed by MTV counsel, Ulysses Sevilla.

It “demands” that the villagers vacate the coastal property and pay a P5,000 “monthly fee,” computed from January 2014, “as reasonable compensation for the use and occupation” of the land.

Cristan Pabello, spokesperson of KMP’s local organization, Samahan ng Magsasaka sa Batangas (Sambat), said the 602-hectare property with a 2,000 voting population, is part of the 8,000-hectare Hacienda Looc that straddles Maragondon and Nasugbu town, Batangas province.

According to KMP, the property in Maragondon is “contested land” since it was originally classified as agricultural land under the agrarian reform program of the Marcos regime before it was reclassified as an ecotourism zone.

Reached by phone on Thursday, Deyto confirmed the impending demolition of the houses, as well as Sta. Mercedes Elementary School and Bucal National High School, which have a combined population of 750 students, to give way for the tourism project.

Deyto said the occupants were “illegal settlers” who, he added, were “tolerated until the company saw it as a prime property for development” following the completion last year of the P808.9-million Ternate-Nasugbu Road and the Kaybiang tunnel, a major infrastructure project of the Aquino administration.

He said that of the 380 owners of structures there, only about 50 families had refused to vacate and move to the six-hectare relocation site being prepared in Barangay Pinagsanhan, also in Maragondon.

Sambat earlier claimed that only about 20 families have agreed to move out of Sta. Mercedes.

Deyto described the relocation site as “something never been done before.” It has 500 units of concrete houses, a two-story school, and an oyster and mushroom farm for the displaced families, he pointed out.

He said the company had not yet completed its master plan for its tourism project in Sta. Mercedes, but hinted on building something similar to Hamilo Coast, a high-end beach resort in  adjacent Nasugbu, by 2015.