‘Officers, enlisted men stand to gain from AFP off-base housing project’

Military officers and enlisted personnel will both benefit from the off-base housing program of the Armed Forces in Fort Bonifacio, contrary to the claims of a group of retired military officers that only the top brass will obtain units in the project, the government’s urban development agency said yesterday.

Amado Bagatsing, Housing and Urban Development Council vice chairman, said the off-base housing project is located on a seven-hectare lot separated by presidential proclamation from a 37-hectare property previously set aside for an AFP officers’ village.

Bagatsing denied that houses on the site had been demolished and the residents evicted to give way for the construction of condominiums that will largely benefit military officers.

"I inspected the site in January 2003 in my capacity as chairman of the project committee, and I found the area to be completely vacant," he said.

Bagatsing said after two buildings had been constructed in the area, some individuals suddenly surfaced and claimed that their houses on the site were being illegally demolished.

The petition for a temporary restraining order filed by the alleged occupants against the developer has since been dismissed by the Pasig Regional Trial Court, he added.

However, retired Navy Commander Hernani Jover said his house was torn down by an Army demolition team last Tuesday .

"Wala ng mga tao doon (All the residents are gone)," he said. "Totally demolished na lahat (Everything has been totally demolished)... for them to defy the court, it’s too much."

Jover denounced the AFP and DMCI, developer of the military housing project, for disregarding a court order.

"Sinira nila lahat (They demolished everything)… The fences, the remaining houses... forced out the people trapped inside notwithstanding the court order," he said.

Jover said DMCI security guards assisted by troops from Task Force Bantay tore down fences around the lot in question, where the houses once stood.

President Diosdado Macapagal, and later her daughter, President Arroyo, had allotted the land for homeless officers and men of the Armed Forces, he added.

Jover said demolition was undertaken while a case to determine the rightful claimant was still pending at the Pasig Regional Trial Court.

DMCI wanted to clear the area to pave the way for the construction of modern condominium units for the Department of National Defense and Armed Forces housing project, he added. — Jaime Laude