ALFONSO LISTA, Ifugao—Several property owners in Barangay Sto. Domingo here have decried the alleged unfair settlement schemes allegedly being implored by the management of SN Aboitiz Power–Magat in the acquisition of lands to pave the way for the P900-million Magat River Irrigation System optimization project.
Lawyer Noel Magalgalit said his client who owns some 2.4 hectares of agricultural land that will be submerged by the project, is one of those who have received an unfair offer from the company just for them to allow the project to proceed.
In fact, Magalgalit revealed a land owner who owns a 3,000-square meter land was paid more than P926,000 in livelihood gratuity plus P18 per square meter payment of the land allegedly based on existing values in the area.
Further, another land owner who owns a land 7,000 square meters was paid more than P1.7 million in livelihood gratuity and P18 per square meter value of the land while another land owner who owns a land measuring 3,600 square meters stands to receive P1.2 million in livelihood gratuity and P18 per square meter value of the land.
However, Magalgalit cited that his client, who has four heirs over the 2.4-hectare land that will be submerged, was offered only P525,000 in livelihood gratuity and P18 per square meter of the land.
“We find the offer to be unfair and not in accordance with standards comparing the same to the other offers made to the affected land owners,” Magalgalit stressed.
It was learned that Judge Rufus G. Malecdan of the Regional Trial Court Branch 15, dismissed the motion for reconsideration filed by NIA after it junked the expropriation proceedings filed against the land owner while the Court of Appeals denied the petition for certiorari with urgent motion for issuance of TRO and/or Injunction filed by the power firm seeking to stop the court proceedings on the complaint for injunction filed by the affected land claimants before RTC-15.
