The Banilad friar estate: Why all the trouble?

I don't know why Provincial Board Member Victor Maambong is asking for a big investigation on the alleged defects found in the new P60- million Legislative Building constructed by Dakay Construction on very petty matters like the "shaking of the elevator" or that its lights went out or even because the microphones that were delivered were a different model or brand. Gads, this has nothing to do with the integrity or the structure of the Legislative Building.

I have been involved in the construction of our buildings in the past 30 years and all new buildings always have some minor glitches, which is considered normal. In fact, we just finished putting in the elevator at the Century Plaza Hotel and before it can be turned over, it needs to be properly aligned. That is part of its installation. But the wrong microphones? Come on!

I personally know Engr. Ricky Dakay to be one Cebuano whose probity is without question. He is a private sector member of the Regional Development Council (RDC-7) and a former President of the Cebu Rotary Club (Mother) and would never make any foolishness in his business! Truth is, he was already living happily in the United States until his father died and he had to come home to reluctantly take over their family's construction business.

Yes, once he told me that he never wanted to have any dealings with the government because of the very same thing he is now being harassed! So please PB Victor, just finish the installation of the elevator, change the microphones if you don't like it, but you do not need to make a fuss or a media circus out of this, unless someone has a hidden agenda, who wants to shake down Engr. Dakay! A shake down is Mafia-speak when a gangster wants money or information from someone! If the victim refuses, the gangster may cut him with a knife or worse, kill the person.

If you ask me, the Provincial Board should not get itself involved in this "shakedown" as those alleged defects are nothing more than the birth pangs of a new building, something so common in all types of construction. We have more than enough problems. We do not need to make mountains out of molehills!

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This afternoon, a public hearing of unprecedented impact to a huge number of Cebuanos living in an area of 1,900 hectares in the North District of Cebu City will be conducted by the Committee on Natural Resources led by its Chairman Rep. Leovigildo B. Banaag at the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) Social Hall at 1PM to 5PM.

Make sure you folks who have houses, properties or businesses within the so-called Banilad Friar Estate would attend this momentous hearing. If you want to know, the boundaries of the Banilad Friar Estates start from the Mahiga Creek, along Country Mall, all the way to Guadalupe River in the West and all the way to P. Del Rosario St. and down to the old shoreline of Cebu City before the North Reclamation was built. This includes just about the highest valued properties in Cebu City's North District… like Mango Ave. or Ramos St. including the AsiaTown IT Park and the Ayala Business Park.

One of the biggest problems plaguing the Philippines is that we've got titles to properties that our families have owned for decades and yet, a crooked lawyer can still contest your title in our courts of law. Add a few crooked prosecutors and a few crooked judges chances are good that you would lose the property that your parents handed down to you as your inheritance. I do not call this injustice but gross injustice, as it is robbery done via our judicial system. I have talked about this with no less than Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. and he was appalled that this was happening in his beloved Cebu!

This public hearing stemmed from the case filed by Francisco Alonso vs. the Cebu Country Club (CCC). CCC got its title last Nov.19, 1931 and all their land records, like most of us Cebuanos lost all of it during World War II. In November of 1948, CCC got its reconstituted title at the Register of Deeds; so too with many Cebuano land owners. In 1992, Francisco Alonso filed a case against CCC to recover what he thought was rightfully his. Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 8 rendered a decision in favor of CCC.

The case was brought to the Court of Appeals and the lower courts decision was affirmed. Not satisfied, it was brought to the Supreme Court where they issued a strange decision… that the CCC property did not belong to any of the litigants but the Philippine government. Hence the public hearing today is a proposal by Rep. Raul del Mar in order to permanently fix this legal problem.

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