“The incoming president must step in.”
Sometime in 1980, when the country was still under Martial Law and when former First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos was the Minister of Human Settlements, through the Technology Resource Foundation Center Foundation, a portion of the kilometers-long National Power Corporation powerline, a strip of land running alongside San Lorenzo Village and Dasmarinas Village, some 154 townhouses were built and sold to the public at nominal prices and called Ecology Village.
My wife and I had long wanted to transfer from our house at the Philamlife Homes in Quezon City to Makati City, and we took the opportunity to buy a townhouse beside the Don Bosco Church and beside the Don Bosco School, a few minutes walk to a shopping center and all the restaurants along Pasay Road. Luckily, one of the advisers of Imelda, the late Vincent Recto, was a good family friend and we managed to buy a townhouse with three bedrooms in the second story.
The TRCF issued us a certificate of Ownership equivalent to a title with a lease of P1,500 a year. We were told that the lease of 25 years was renewable after 25 years. All the other buyers were also issued a Certificate of Ownership by the TRCF plus a leasehold on the property where the townhouses were built, ranging from 1,600 square meters to 27,000 square meters, depending on the land where the townhouses were built.
When the strongman Ferdinand E. Marcos, the late father of President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. Was exiled to Honolulu, and the late Cory Aquino was installed as President in February 25, 1986, the Ministry of Human Settlements was abolished. The vengeful administration wanted to erase then Marcos from the face of the earth, then Executive Secretary Joker Arroyo had all the leases of the 154 townhouses in the village called Ecology Village, cancelled, which technically made all the owners of those townhouses informal settlers or squatters on a public land.
I was then chairman of the Ecology Village Homeowners Association and with the help of lawyer Manuel “Lolong” Lazaro, who then was also a unit owner, tried to have that leasehold renewed to no avail. In fact, I recall that we also had discussions with the Privacy Management Council when some big business corporations wanted to have the strip of Napocor powerline, but we could not agree because surveys showed that the 154 owners of the units did not want to sell their units. Thus, we ended all discussions about the nature of the townhouses at Ecology Village, making it almost impossible to sell the units.
With this as background of this tragic anomaly called Ecology Village, I make this appeal to President-elect Bongbong to renew the leasehold of all the units at Ecology Village, to legitimize the 154 units called Ecology Village in fairness, justice and equity, only because we became victims to a vengeful Cory Aquino regime that wanted to erase the name Marcos from the face of the earth. I believe only a President can render fairness, justice and equity to everybody owning units, now in their twilight years. It would do well for the Ecology Village Homeowners Association to make this appeal to the President elect, since the homeowners bought the units during his mother’s tenure as Minister of Human Settlements, to render fairness, justice and equity to everybody.
In our discussions with the Privacy Management Council, it was established that while technically, all unit owners of the 154 townhouses called Ecology Village are squatters, government cannot do anything because we have vested rights to the units we bought, and if government were to evict us, government would be facing 154 lawsuits.
The issue of Ecology Village with all its unitowners having been made technically squatters, has been complicated by the takeover of the City Government of Makati of the Napocor powerline. As a consequence, the City Government of Makati has been charging the unitowners real estate taxes for the units they occupy and for all the open spaces. The question now is why should the Ecology Village homeowners be made to pay taxes if they don’t own the land? This is issue must be corrected in the soonest possible time.
Personally I believe only the City Government of Makati can resolve this complicated issue, since it is only fair and just that the homeowners who don’t own the land should be made to pay real estate taxes.
Again, I repeat this plea to President elect Bongbong to render us fairness, justice and equity by renewing our leasehold right to a government property. Thank you, President-elect Bongbong.
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Insiders tell me that the next Senate President will most likely be Senate Majority Leader Migz Zubiri because of his excellent performance as Majority Leader in the 18th Congress. His closest rivals must be Senator Cynthia Villar, a long-time senator. There were earlier reports that Senator Loren Legarda and Senator Sonny Angara may aspire for the Presidency of the Senate, but according to insiders, the Magic 13 prefers Zubiri.
Speaking of the No. 1 Senator of the last elections, movie actor Robin Padilla, has chosen his own committee to lead – the Committee of Constitutional Amendments and Electoral Reform because he would like to push for Federalism. But, I wonder if Padilla knows what Federalism entails and how to get it done. Anyway, let’s see how far Padilla can get in his advocacy. Federalism? To replace a republican system of government? Let’s see how far he can get.
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People have been asking me what I think of the possible appointments of President-elect BBM. Frankly, it would seem that his chosen cabinet members have been getting approval by the private sector, the business community and investors, especially Bongbong’s economic team which is the need of the hour, composed of recycled government functionaries from the past administration.
The choice of Benjamin Diokno, Bangko Sentral governor, as secretary of Finance is excellent. Diokno carries with him his experience as former secretary of Budget and Management and as BSP Governor. And definitely he is a man of honesty and integrity. Likewise his economic team, with Felipe Medalla as the new BSP governor, Alfredo Pascual as secretary of Trade and Industry, considering their competence and experience, are also men of honesty and integrity. As the new socio-economic Secretary of NEDA, Arsenio Balisacan carries with him competence and as man of honesty and integrity, he has the support of the business community and investors, a support much-needed, my gulay, with the Marcos administration confronted with challenges like jumpstarting the economy, as much needed economic stimulus.
But, Bongbong’s economic team will likewise need men of competence and men of honesty and integrity in the Department of Agriculture, Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of Transportation. So far so good as they say since we all know that the success or failure of any administration depends largely on the success and failure of cabinetmen.
In the final analysis, Santa Banana, the people can either sink or swim with the new President, considering the many challenges confronting the new administration. Personally, in my over-70 years as a journalist, my gulay, I have never seen so many challenges facing an administration as those facing the administration of President-elect Bongbong Marcos. To be honest, he will need all the help and assurance we can give him, even from a responsible and credible opposition.
