Sagada village folks stop house demolition

HAPPY WEEKEND
Gina Dizon

SAGADA, Mountain Province -- Customary rules may prevail over State law. Thus assessed local leader and Association of Barangay Chairmen head Jaime Tigan-o Dugao on the community people's prevention of a house to be demolished as per court order.

In this tourist town where cultural practices are still strong among village folks, demolishing a house is not that easy. Nearly 200 people gathered here in Sitio Danonoy last Nov. 12 to prevent the demolition of the house of spouses Veronica and Edward Alicda following a special demolition order issued by the Regional Trial Court of Bontoc, Mountain Province.

Folks here said they were not opposing the court order but are exercising their rights to their customary practices of valuing a house already built.

A statement signed by nearly 200 hundred persons said a house is a ‘community ownership’ much as the village folks shared in the making of the structure along with the conduct of cultural ceremonies.

Demolishing a house is then out of customary practices in this community where cultural acts are consistently practiced through years of western influence.

Elder James Gaongen said that building a house is a community effort. While it is the house of a private person, the spiritual/cultural “ownership” of the people of the community on the house is enmeshed in having collectively built the structure.

It is not then easy to dismantle nor transfer a house where people’s efforts have been put into. Demolishing a house is shattering the culture of a community, he added.

And if a house is insisted to be demolished by another person outside of the owner’s will and consent , then the owner’s hurt feelings will work against the one who forces his way in demolishing the house of another, Gaongen said. The customary principle of 'inayan' takes on a strong base of protecting a house already built from being demolished.

Former mayor and community leader Thomas Killip said, preventing the demolition of the house is intended to bridge harmony among conflicting parties and give time for opposing parties to come together and talk things out again in consonance to community values and practices.

The Alicda spouses are caretakers of the lot where the Alicdas built their house on. Said lot is a dispute between Balbin Galas vs Pedro Umaming and Alfredo Carling. The case reached the Court of Appeals with a favorable decision in favor of Galas on September 8, 2000 and became final and executory on Nov. 11, 2000.

The 19 year old land dispute started in 1991 with the lupon not able to decide on the dispute which led Galas to file the said case in the Regional Trial Court.

The court’s decision identified Galas’ claim covered by a tax declaration as per transfer from a 1924 tax declaration of Patricio Ullocan who sold a parcel of lot to Galas. Said case on the quieting of title also covers an adjoining lot of Emilia Ollucan- Galas into the Galas claim. The said land case also includes an adjoining lot claimed by Carmen Abeya covered within the lot totally claimed by Galas.

Said civil case is docketed as William Galas vs Pedro Umaming, Alfredo Carling, Angel Alicda and Carmen Abeya.

In a separate agreement during the Nov. 12 off-court settlement, the Alicda spouses and William Galas Jr speaking for the Galas’, agreed to have a three month settlement period starting November 12, 2010; for Galas to purchase said house and if not able to purchase said house within two months, shall inform Alicda to voluntarily dismantle their house; and if not dismantled after the lapse of three months, shall let court proceedings take over.

As of press time, it was learned that negotiations were on- going between the Alicda and Galas families with the mediation of elders and local leaders. This is the second time that the community folks here stopped the demolition of a house as per court order.