On Panglao Airport Project: Lot owner seeking ‘just compensation’

PANGLAO, BOHOL, Philippines — Lot owner Pascasio Bongot, a farmer in Panglao, Bohol, and his family had asked the government for ‘just compensation’ on his property that was among those being expropriated for the P7-billion Panglao Airport development project, which is expected to be finished middle of next year.

Bongot’s land at Barangay Bolod has an area of 2,400 square meter and is the location where the airport’s landing strip will be built. He told DYTR during last week’s Cuentas Claras program, that he did not oppose to the project but only wanted a fair and equitable payment for his expropriated property.

Bongot said the government will be paying for their 2,400-sq.m. lot at only P60 per sq.m., and will give them a 250-sq.m. lot at the relocation site, under a swapping agreement, but this left him with no more farm land to till.

He accused the government of what he described as “unfair” treatment on the expropriation of his lot, while citing some lot owners in the project area being bartered with bigger lot areas than what they originally owned.

Based on documents he obtained, Bongot cited an example of the barter of private lots with government lots:

1)Spouses Edwin T. Vallejos and Gemma Doblas, whose 9,760-sq.m. lot was exchanged with government lot with an area of 10,578 sq.m.; and

2)Spouses Teofilo Arcay and Juanita Arsua Arcay’s 6,296-sq.m. lot was swapped with a government lot of 14,910-sq.m.;

However, another private lot, of spouses Restituto L. Castro and Elvira S. Castro, with an area of 4,259-sq.m. was exchanged with a government’s lot with only 3,009-sq.m. area. Several lot owners also agreed to the P60 per sq. m. expropriation rate for their properties.

Bongot said that, if these lot owners were swapped with bigger lots with the rest with smaller ones and he with even the least area, there is no fair play in the expropriation method of the government.

Moreover, Bongot’s house in the area and his family’s ancestral home were demolished last week by a composite team of the Bohol provincial government and other agencies with police and military forces. This was after the court issued the writ of demolition for the Bongots to vacate the area.

His daughter, Estela, said in separate interview that they tried, thru their lawyer, a former judge Helen Cabatos, to appeal for a deferment of the demolition until December so they can celebrate Christmas for the last time in their abode where they grew up. The court denied them.

“It was very sentimental that the place where you grew up is somehow seized by force,” Estela said. Bongot added that he was wondering why there were so many law enforcers during the demolition when his case is just a civil in nature and not a criminal one.

Former Panglao town mayor Doloreich Dumaluan, who accompanied Bongot, incidentally his relative, to the radio station, said they’re contemplating to go to the human rights agency for help. Estela said they’re hoping and seeking for “just compensation” from the government, which promised them of their ancestral land. “There’s nothing we can do anymore,” she said earlier.

The Bongot family is now renting an apartment for P8,000 per month, as their temporarily residence until the house they’re going to stay at the relocation site will be completed with water connection and electricity supply.

Provincial Legal Officer John Mitchell “Boloy” Boiser, the acting provincial administrator, responded to the complaint of the Bongots by telling DYTR radio that the role of the provincial government in the airport project is only to assist the Department of Transportation (DOTr) in the implementation. The DOTr is responsible in the expropriation proceedings, as well as in ejecting the Bongot from their land after a court’s order, including the writs of possession and demolition.

Boiser said there is already a check being deposited by DOTr with the court to be used to pay the Bongot’s family as compensation of the latter’s property. He added that the “just compensation” of the Bongot’s lot acquisition by the government is mainly based on government’s valuation, and that the court may or may not change the zonal valuation as proposed. (FREEMANNEWS)