Taguig ‘meddling’ on reclamation inspection hit

MANILA, Philippines — Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla has accused the Taguig local government of blocking the investigation by his office of alleged illegal reclamation activities in the city.

Speaking in his “Executive Session” program on radio dzRH on Saturday, Remulla disclosed that some personnel of the ombudsman – particularly police assigned to them – were scolded and prevented by Taguig local government personnel from taking pictures during an inspection of the reclaimed area.

“We had investigators who were being hindered in Taguig… they even identified themselves as Office of the Ombudsman personnel, to no avail,” he said. “They were supposed to fly the drone to take pictures, but they are being prevented. They are blocking cops detailed to us.”

Citing a social media post by Sen. Panfilo Lacson who divulged the alleged anomalies in reclamation projects at portions of Laguna de Bay located in the city, the Pilipino Star Ngayon reported that Special Action Force operatives arrested personnel from Taguig’s Public Order and Safety Office (POSO) for allegedly preventing ombudsman
 personnel from carrying out their supposed probe.

Lacson has cited eight reclamation sites along the Taguig side of the Laguna de Bay were fraudulent, four of which had fake land titles while the remaining four had no plotted lots in the digital file of the Land Registration Authority.

In a statement, the Taguig city government argued “the POSO personnel had no intention of interfering with, or preventing, the Office of the Ombudsman from carrying out its official functions.”

“Their actions were undertaken in the course of their regular public safety and enforcement duties and were prompted by the need to verify the identity and purpose of individuals who, at the time, were in civilian clothes, using an unmarked vehicle parked along a bike lane, and operating a drone in a public area,” it added.?