Heed Homeowners Wishes, LGUs Asked

Celso Reyes, President of United Homeowners’ Associations, Inc. (UBFHAI), the umbrella association of 72 homeowners associations, appealed to the mayors and city councils of both cities to honor the wishes of their constituents in BF Homes.

“The city councils, in a certain sense, are pandering to special interest groups and overriding the decision that homeowners made several years ago,” Reyes said when the two city mayors forcibly opened the subdivision’s gates to outsider traffic. “It shows how the city councils can be out of touch with the more pressing concerns of the city. Hopefully, our district councilors will try to represent our district and not cave-in to the more strident voices of opportunists,” Reyes added.

In a survey conducted among homeowners which was unanimously ratified in the President’s Meeting of September 14, 1997, 86% signified against reclassification of BF Homes main roads from residential to commercial status.

Despite overwhelming objections, the Parañaque City government passed the Ordinance No. 97-08, legalizing commercial establishments intruding into “residential use” only zones. Its validity is being contested by homeowners at the Supreme Court. Subsequently, the city council passed Ordinance 00-15 mandating the opening of privately owned and maintained subdivision roads to the general public. Its constitutionality is being contested by homeowners at the appellate court. Earlier, the Las Piñas government passed Ordinance No. 152-93, directing the owner/developer, homeowners association, receiver/conservator or any person in charge of subdivision, villages or compound to open and allow the public free of charge to use their streets or roads. This ordinance, according to the appellate court, “cannot stand the test of constitutionality.” [CA G.R. SP No. 47011]

In water-starved BF Homes, the ordinance converted properties one lot deep along Aquirre and a portion of El Grande Avenues to commercial zones, allowing the construction of multi-storey structures, restaurants, beer houses, super clubs, liquor stores, gasoline service stations, supermarkets, banks colleges and universities, including funeral parlors, mortuaries and crematory services and memorial chapels.

Homeowners are outraged by the prospect of having such establishments as their next door neighbors. UBFHAI thus devised strategies precisely designed to discourage construction of these structures, including higher entrance and construction fees and outsider motorists pass-through stickers (P750). Moreover, residents point out, a majority of the owners of these establishments are not residents of BF Homes. “What they cannot do in their neighborhoods, they do to BF Homes,” they noted.

Owners of properties in private subdivisions like BF Homes bought their properties at prices higher than those outside the subdivisions on the premise that they will be residing in residential neighborhoods away from centers of commerce or more populous districts. This condition is annotated in their respective titles and constitute their contracts with the developer.

“When we bought out respective properties we did so on the assurance that we will be living in a purely residential community. If we had contemplated being in a business sector, we would have bought elsewhere,” homeowners claim. Such position is confirmed and upheld by the results of the survey.

BF homeowners claim they are the beneficial owners of the roads and open spaces privately titled to the developer, having paid for them when they purchased their properties. As such, the local government cannot simply take over private property without due process, that is, by expropriation or compensation.

Parañaque Mayor Jun Bernabe disregarded the court injunction by dismantling, aided by SWAT and uniformed policemen and barangay tanods, the gates of the subdivision last August 23, 2005, and exposed the homeowners to security risks and horrendous traffic congestion. Las Piñas Mayor Imelda Aguilar followed suit on September 1, 2005, using the exact same method, deploying the SWAT, police operatives, and barangay tanods. As a result, homeowners view the policemen and tanods and shabbily-dressed characters occupying their gates as trespassers to be treated and ejected as such.

The city councils should heed their wishes, homeowners insist. “The vision of the community should come from its residents and not dictated by city hall. The experts in the development of their neighborhood should be the residents themselves and not the businessmen, bankers and real estate developers, who as a rule don’t even live in their properties,” they stressed.

Unless the Mayors of both Parañaque and Las Piñas and their respective city councilors become more sensitive and responsive to the feelings of residents over the demands of outside speculators, animosity between officials and residents is bound to worsen.