The illegal structures to demolish

I could not understand my feelings while reading a news report carried in this paper the other day that eight houses were demolished in Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City. I was supposed to feel happy because, in spite of the populist cause called human rights that I wanted to be associated with, I had always been advocating for the removal of structures that were built on public roads, esteros and the like.

At first glance, I should have, indeed, been glad that the city government under the administration of His Honor, Cebu City Mayor Tomas R. Osmeña, has finally found political will to do what is good. Clearing a road of illegal occupants is, without doubt, doing something that benefits the public in general. After all, a road is built not for people to erect their homes on.

Given that frame of reasoning, I was really prepared to stand up and applaud the mayor for doing what I thought was long overdue. In fact, at the back of my mind, I wanted to point to him, too, that the nearby C. Mina Street, a road that disappeared from the map because it had been completely taken over by settlers, needs also to be cleared of houses. Not that my applause would matter to the mayor but I was ready to give to Ceasar what was Ceasar’s.

However, when I continued to read the report, I learned that the area occupied by the eight houses was considered an “abandoned road”. That description gave a different complexion to the story because the term “abandoned road” has a specific legal connotation. So, where did the reporter get the idea that the road was abandoned? The news story itself supplied the answer. I suppose that the team of city government workers that destroyed the homes gave out that information.

This was where I got mixed feelings. I could not celebrate over an act that, I felt, was legally questionable. If the road was abandoned, there must have been a city ordinance that made such a declaration. That piece of local legislation, upon its effectivity, removed the public domain status of the road. As a result, that area simply became of proprietary ownership of the city and the homes, built on it, were not necessarily nuisance per se that could be abated in the unlawful manner they were removed last Thursday.

So, instead of feeling euphoric, I was saddened by the mayor’s directive. His order to demolish the structures was apparently not anchored upon solid legal ground. Had the mayor first sought the opinion of the city attorney, the latter would have cautioned him from carrying out such a tyrannical act.

The correct, although admittedly slower way, was for the city to get an appropriate order from judicial authorities. In the proceedings, the settlers would have their day in court. They would have lost the case just the same, but the decision would have served a warning to all intruders, in privately owned lands or in government properties, that usurpers would not be allowed to trample upon the rights of legitimate owners.

It feels great to think that the mayor has the mind to rid our streets and riverbanks of nuisance. If he addresses a more daunting problem, my feeling of joy will not be diluted. I refer to the anomaly posed by structures that cover the air space above some esteros. Some waterways are no longer accessible because buildings are constructed over them. To cite a possible example, we have the access to the Cherry Court along Gen. Maxilom Avenue obliterating the waterway under it.

These buildings of similar configuration, owned by moneyed business people, have to be demolished to free the flow of water. The mayor should not be intimidated by the threats of litigation. If he should be bully, as I perceive him, at times, to be, this is the occasion to display such vicious character. In his triumph, which I believe is inevitable, our collective gladness will not be adulterated.

The likely bonus is that our less privileged brothers, those who have chosen to build their houses along the river banks and side streets, will have acknowledged the precedent and may volunteer to tear down their own structures.

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