Raps filed vs NCIP exec for stopping demolition at Baguio watershed

By Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY – The city government filed a petition Monday before the Supreme Court to cite National Commission on Indigenous Peoples-Cordillera hearing officer Brain Masweng for contempt for issuing temporary restraining orders in favor of the squatters that thwarted the city government’s bid to demolish illegal structures here at the Busol watershed last July 28.

In the petition, the city represented by legal officer Melchor Carlos Rabanes said Masweng’s act is contemptuous and “a willful disregard, disobedience, defiance and resistance to the decision of the Supreme Court” giving due course to the city’s bid to demolish illegal structures inside the forest reservation.

“It shows an obstinate refusal to recognize, conform and abide by the Decision of the Highest Court of the land.

The city also said that Masweng’s act of “entertaining the second case of Injunction involving the same Demolition Order No. 33 series of 2005 involving the same issues over Busol Forest Reservation which have been adjudicated with finality by the Supreme Court, is tantamount to forum-shopping to prosper.”

“By said acts, Masweng has also created in the mind of the public that the pronouncements of the Supreme Court over issues on the Busol Watershed which is a matter of public interest can just be ignored, flouted and rendered useless by the NCIP,” the city said adding that said acts of Masweng “should therefore be sanctioned as contempt under section 1 and section 3(b) and (d) of the Revised Rules of Court.

The Supreme Court in a decision dated Feb. 4, 2009 sustained the city government’s bid to demolish structures within the Busol Watershed in 2006 by reversing an earlier decision of the Court of Appeals which upheld the jurisdiction of the NCIP to issue temporary restraining orders and later a preliminary injunction to stop the implementation of the three demolition orders issued by then Mayor Braulio Yaranon for the dismantling of the illegal structures constructed by Lazaro Bawas, Alexander Ampaguey Sr. and a certain Mr. Basatan.

Structure occupants Elvin Gumangan, Narciso Basatan and Lazaro Bawas filed a petition for injunction and restraining orders before the NCIP Cordillera claiming that the lots within the watershed are their ancestral lands and that their ownership of said lots “have been expressly recognized in Proclamation No. 15 dated April 27, 1922” which declared the areas as a forest reservation.

Masweng also then granted the petition which was later upheld by the Court of Appeals.
The city government through Rabanes elevated the case to the Supreme Court contending that the NCIP has no jurisdiction to issue the restraining orders and injunction and that the city is governed by its charter and “thus, (lot occupants) cannot claim their alleged ancestral lands under the provisions of the Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA).”

The court agreed and said Proclamation No. 15 “does not appear to be a definitive recognition of private respondents’ ancestral land claim.”

The city said that “despite the clear and categorical pronouncements of the Supreme Court over the (Busol) which (Masweng) is very much aware of… still, (Masweng) went on restraining the other demolition orders thus frustrating the efforts of (the City) to clear the (Busol) of squatters and illegal constructions, protect the same from activities that degrade it, and ultimately preserve this vital and major reservation which the main source of water supply for (the city).”

Masweng last July 28 issued a 72-hour TRO and extended the same for 17 more days on July 31 maintaining that the city government has no power under the NIPAS Act of 1992 “to evict indigenous communities from their present occupancy nor resettle them to another area without their consent.

He also said the owners of the Busol structures “have a clear legal right to be protected against the summary demolition of their houses as the law provides that the Indigenous Cultural Communities and the Indigenous Peoples are presumed to be holders of native titles over their ancestral claims.”

Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr. said that the city stands by its position that the Supreme Court decision remains supreme over any ruling from other entities.

He said that the demolition order on the Busol watershed illegal structures still stands despite a halt in the operations to sort out legal issues and give time for the city to improve its demolition strategy.

The mayor said the city government has expanded the demolition plan for Busol watershed illegal structures into a two-year comprehensive plan to ensure that it will be sustained even with a change in the administration of the city mayor’s office.

The mayor said that new guidelines have been mapped out to ensure a more orderly and peaceful demolition undertaking and prevent scuffles that marred the operations the other week.

The guidelines include the appointment of city administrator Peter Fianza as crisis negotiator before demolition activities will be carried out.