Garden replaces house on Benguet farm road

‘SIGA’ The village leader’s house (encircled) sits right in the middle of this farm-to-market road in Buguias town, Benguet province. This grainy photo was taken by a farmer. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

BAGUIO CITY—The house built in the middle of a farm-to-market road in Buguias town, Benguet province, is gone.

It was removed from the village road in Barangay (village) Baculongan Norte on Thursday by Delmon Thomas, a former village chief, who admitted to building it in order to reclaim the property owned by his father, who died in May, his neighbors said on Friday.

But the house was replaced with a camote (sweet potato) garden said to have been cultivated by Thomas, who had asked his neighbors to pay him up to P1 million to give up his family claim, said Mina Bela-o, one of his neighbors.

At least 350 farming families use the village road, which was blocked in July by Thomas’ house.

Some farmers complained to Benguet Gov. Nestor Fongwan in August about their predicament, saying the house had forced them to haul crops manually around the house in order to sell their produce at the nearest market.

Pay P3,000 first

During negotiations last month, Thomas had asked each of the 350 families to pay him P3,000 before he agreed to clear the road.

In a Sept. 11 interview in La Trinidad town, Thomas said collecting P3,000 from the farmers was “fair, given what my family lost.”

Thomas said he was 8 years old when the road was built in the early 1980s. “My father told me that [a neighbor] promised to pay him for allowing the road to be built on our land. But [the neighbor] died after the road was built and was not able to pay,” he said.

Thomas said his family waited for the neighbor’s family to fulfill his promise but no one offered to settle, even after his father died.

Thomas said he did not pursue the claim when he served as village chief in 2010 because he had resigned and left to work in Russia.

He returned this year to bury his father and had informed the community about his land claims.

“On June 21, I told people that I will close the road on

June 26. Nobody came to negotiate with me, so I blocked the road,” he said.

Thomas first built a stone wall across the road in June but it was taken down by the villagers. He returned in July to build the house.

Bela-o said Buguias officials and residents of Baculongan Norte had been negotiating for the opening of the road “because we are all neighbors and we believe Delmon is a good man.”

Violent incident

A violent incident there, however, has compromised the talks.

Thomas said his house was burned down on Aug. 16, shortly after the Inquirer ran a story about the community’s predicament.

But he said no one prevented him from rebuilding the house on Aug. 31.

Thomas did not respond to calls or text messages sent by the Inquirer on Friday to inquire as to why he dismantled the house this week.

Fongwan earlier told the Inquirer that he had directed Buguias town officials to resolve the dispute. Kimberlie Quitasol, with a report from Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon