The Angeles LGU has put into motion the mapping and tagging of residents of contested land in Sitio Balubad, Barangay Anunas, with the Angeles City Council having met some of the affected tenants during a consultative meeting at the City Council on Wednesday.
Angeles City Mayor Carmelo ‘Pogi’ Lazatin Jr. on Wednesday has instructed City Councilor Atty. Arvin Suller to meet with the affected tenants of Sitio Balubad, Barangay Anunas in a consultation meeting at the Session Hall, City Council Building.
Some 53 Anunas tenants who attended the meeting agreed on the said move of the city government to identify the legitimate tenants of the said area in Balubad, Barangay Anunas.
Present during the consultation meeting are Barangay Cuayan Captain Rufino Candelaria, and Barangay Anunas Captain Augusto Flores together with some of the tenants of some 500 houses affected in the said barangays.
The consultation meeting is part of the city government’s plan of tagging and mapping affected families in the said area.
Mayor Lazatin said the Angeles LGU seeks to expropriate the land and is now in the process of identifying affected tenants.
Lazatin instructed the Angeles City Human Settlement and Urban Development (ACHSUD), thru Atty. Suller, to conduct thorough mapping and tagging of the affected families to ensure that all of them would be properly identified and that no one will be left behind as the city government strives to provide the best possible assistance to them.
The City Council has approved resolutions that allowed Mayor Lazatin to initiate expropriation proceedings after the talks between the tenants and the Clarkhills management bogged down. Clarkhills President Oscar Torralba has apparently refused to sit in the negotiating table to break the impasse.
A demolition staged on Monday morning went haywire after the indignant residents clashed head on with the demolition team.
A truck of the demolition team was burned down in the ensuing confrontation.
“We do not want any of the Anunas residents to get hurt. There should be no social injustice,” said Mayor Lazatin who has vowed to fight for the rights of affected residents.
The residents were awarded Certificate of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs) in 1998 during the time of Presidents Joseph Estrada and Fidel Ramos.
