Squatters have 28 days to leave Makati gov’t lot

Some 250 families squatting on an 870-sq m lot owned by the Makati City government have been given less than a month to leave their houses to make way for the construction of a multimillion peso barangay complex.

The property on Guatemala Street was bought by the Makati government from its owner in 2005. It is the future site of a P100 million multicommunity complex which comes with a three-story barangay hall, a health center and badminton and basketball courts.

According to lawyer Dario Fojas, chair of Barangay San Isidro which has jurisdiction over the area where the property is situated, the residents have until Sept. 19 to vacate their houses based on the certificate of compliance issued by Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay Jr.

Fojas, who has been tasked by Binay to clear the site, added that the matter had been resolved in court in the city government’s favor with Makati Regional Trial Court Judge Benjamin Pozon’s dismissal of the residents’ petition to stop the demolition.

He added that in previous dialogues, the residents were given three options.

“One, we would help them go back to their respective provinces. Second, we offered them P24,000 in financial assistance. Lastly, they can be relocated to a resettlement area in Calauan, Laguna,” Fojas said.

However, only a few families have opted for the first two options. “We are still convincing the rest. We would like this to be resolved peacefully,” the barangay chief said.

The situation was tense in the area Wednesday morning after a demolition team on board three trucks arrived in the area. Residents promptly set up a barricade composed of pedicabs and stones to keep them at bay.

No demolition, however, took place and things slowly returned to normal later on in the day.

“We will fight back. We will not let them tear down our houses,” Lino Ojos, the leader of the resisting residents, told the Inquirer. He has been living in the area since the 1980s.

According to him, most of them turned down the offer to be relocated to Calauan, Laguna, because they believed that jobs were hard to find in the area. “[They should] develop the relocation site first before they transfer us there,” Ojos said.