Government takes over Mile Long complex

MANILA, Philippines - The Privatization and Management Office (PMO) has taken over control of the Mile Long complex along Amorsolo Street in Makati City, deploying at least 20 security guards Saturday evening, former tenants and employees said.

“The security guards hired by government are now in control. We were given until Tuesday to leave,” Pele Corpuz, a caretaker of a restaurant, told The STAR in Filipino yesterday.

One of the newly deployed guards said the PMO instructed them to ensure that nobody returns to the vacated units and to prevent entry, unless authorized.

PMO also ordered all occupants of Sunvar Plaza, McDonald’s, The Gallery, Mile Long, TMX Louie Cinema and other Sunvar Realty-leased property to coordinate with them.

“While Sunvar has appealed the decision, it is committed to abiding by the legal process. In accordance with that commitment, Sunvar will comply and vacate Mile Long,” Sunvar legal representative Alma Mallonga said in a statement.

A family, who lived for years in a shanty just outside the concrete fence of the 125,000-square-meter Mile Long property, is also planning to ask the government to give them a small space where they could finally settle.

Rolly Cantillan, a scavenger, told The STAR that they have been in the area long before the property was developed.

“We were here. That wall was built to separate our shanty,” he said, expressing hope that the government would be compassionate to him and his six children.

He hopes President Duterte will notice their plight and award them a small space.