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SC lets Baguio gov’t resume demolition of squatter areas

By Benjamin B. Pulta

02/08/2009

A ruling by the Supreme Court (SC) has upheld a suit filed by the Baguio City government questioning whether the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) can issue orders stopping demolition of squatters’ areas.

In its decision the high court’s Second Division, through Associate Justice Dante Tinga, granted the petition of the city government of Baguio City, represented by its Mayor, Reinaldo Bautista Jr., the anti-squatting committee, represented by lawyer Melchor Carlos Rabanes, the City Buildings and Architecture Office, represented by Oscar Flores, and the Public Order and Safety Office, represented by Emmanuel Reyes and later by Gregorio Deligero.

The SC ruling upheld the petition assailing the decision of the Court of Appeals dated April 16, 2007, which affirmed the “injunctive writ” issued by the NCIP against the demolition orders of petitioners.

The case stemmed from the three Demolition Orders issued by the city mayor of Baguio City, Braulio Yaranon, ordering the demolition of the illegal structures constructed by Lazaro Bawas, Alexander Ampaguey Sr. and a certain Mr. Basatan on a portion of the Busol Watershed Reservation on Aurora Hill, Baguio City, without the required building permits and in violation of Section 69 of Presidential Decree 705, as amended, Presidential Decree 1096 and Republic Act 7279.

The corresponding demolition advices dated Sept. 19, 2006 were issued informing the occupants of the intended demolition of the erected structures on Oct. 17 to 20, 2006.

Consequently, Elvin Gumangan, Narciso Basatan and Lazaro Bawas filed a petition for injunction with prayer for the issuance of a temporary restraining order and/or writ of preliminary injunction against the office of the city mayor of Baguio City through its acting mayor, Reynaldo Bautista, the City Building and Architecture Office, the Anti-Squatting Task Force and the Public Order and Safety Division, among others, before the NCIP-Cordillera Administrative Region (NCIP-CAR), Regional Hearing Office, La Trinidad, Benguet.

In their petition, the respondents claimed that the lands where their residential houses stand are their ancestral lands which they have been occupying and possessing openly and continuously since time immemorial; that their ownership thereof have been expressly recognized in Proclamation 15 dated April 27, 1922 and recommended by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for exclusion from the coverage of the Busol Forest Reserve. They, thus, contended that the demolition of their residential houses is a violation of their right of possession and ownership of ancestral lands accorded by the Constitution and the law and must thus be restrained.