BF Homes Parañaque homeowners are engaged in a courageous fight against the local government officials to keep the residential character of their neighborhood which is threatened urban greed. City officials, developers, and opportunists want to construct physical structures for the benefit of business. Homeowners oppose this move since this will mean more and more space will be devoted to working and making money and less space to living and nurturing life.
The conflict is of residents protecting their living spaces against the depredations of those who want to use the community and its resources mainly as instruments of profit. All of us are in the same sinking boat being steered by market forces led by our city officials, developers and opportunists into the sea of unbridled commercialism.
It bears repeating that BF Homes Parañaque is a private subdivision and the rights vested in homeowners under PD-957 such as the right to enjoy and the entitlement to the promises of the developer (BFHI), i.e., the right to live in a residential neighborhood, a condition written into and annotated in our titles as notice to the world devolve on and can be exercised by UBFHAI as the duly recognized representative of all homeowners. PD-957 has not been repealed by the Local Government Code (R.A. 7160); therefore, we can enforce our own guidelines which are not contrary to law over and above mayors or building permits.
When Parañaque Mayor Jun Bernabe forcibly opened the access roads of the subdivision, homeowners challenged the validity of Ordinance 00-15(672), asserting that homeowners 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.
It will be recalled that the 8th Division of the Court of Appeals, in a Resolution dated March 27, 2006, issued an injunctive relief, the dispositive portion of which is as follows:
“UBFHAI has continuously administered, regulated and maintained the use of the private roads inside the BF Homes Parañaque Subdivision even employing security guards to man their major gates, issuing passes and tickets for entry into the subdivision for certain purposes and charging fees set by the association. As owners or administrators of private roads, appellants are entitled to continue to enjoy exclusive access therein for their own protection and security and to regulate its use by non-residents within the limits prescribed by law and administrative rules. Appellants have sufficiently shown that the ordinance directing the opening of the subdivision gates has actually caused them injury due to the unmitigated flow of vehicular traffic and pedestrians, and proliferation of crimes that threatened the security of their private homes and properties. Precisely, the law has tasked the owner or developer to initiate the organization of a homeowners’ association for the purpose of promoting and protecting their mutual interest and assist in their community development.”
By virtue of the March 27, 2006, Resolution, the appellate court issued a Writ of Preliminary Injunction dated March 30, 2006, restraining “the City Mayor of Parañaque, its Sanggunuiang Panglunsod and the Philippine National Police, and all other persons acting for and in your behalf… from enforcing the assailed Ordinance No. 00-15 (672), Series of 2000.”
In a letter to Parañaque Mayor Jun Bernabe dated April 17, 2006, the Association cited incidents in violation of the injunctive writ, i.e., the posting of civil security units or guards back at the gates on orders of the mayor, and the refusal to issue posting permits to any United BF Homeowners’ Associations, Inc. (UBFHAI) security agency as a means of indirectly controlling the subdivision’s access gates. Having put “these acts of direct and indirect violations of a legal and lawful writ”, the Association is seeking “appropriate sanctions against you”, the letter continued.
The mayor is misinformed when he insists that the Writ is lifted with the filing of the motion for reconsideration in the appellate court. Any student of law knows that a Writ is in force from issuance and service thereof until lifted by the issuing or higher court. The mayor has thrown all caution to the wind and risks contempt of court by his personal presence at the gates, ordering the Association guards to allow full and untrammeled access by the general public to the subdivision’s roads and by posting civil security units at the gates in violation of the Writ.
UBFHAI is determined to strictly screen incoming and exiting vehicles and pedestrians in accordance with the Integrated Security Program (ISP). The Association deployed volunteers to ensure that movements of vehicles, pedestrian and goods are legitimate and will not prejudice the homeowners.
The attempt of about 20 SWAT operatives to intimidate and “invite” the civilian guards to the police station for “investigation” is a waste of taxpayers’ money. There is no law that prohibits the Association from employing or availing of the services of volunteers to man its gates. Whether they are homeowners or not, therefore, is of no consequence.
Detractors are resorting to slogans and propaganda, demanding an investigation of the Association president, claiming that Association funds are being “illegally” collected and disbursed. Slogans persuade people without appealing to reason. It’s scary because we have to critically discriminate which slogans and emotional appeals are true and right and proper and which are not.
Undoubtedly, the legal expenditures are high since the Association’s Board of Directors resolved to engage the best legal councils the Association can afford in its defense. Illegal? Nonsense.
And, according to “praise” releases in the national and local media, the mayor is asking motorists to report “harassment” at the gates so that appropriate criminal charges could be filed. (Applause sound effect.) This is a good spin, but who’s going to fall for it? Homeowners are not prevented from entering the subdivision even if they do not have stickers. All they will be asked for is proof of residency and they will be waved through.
Access to the Elizalde and Tirona gates is limited to pre-screened vehicles, i.e., vehicles of residents with “Red stickers” and their guests with “Green stickers”. Security will screen vehicles without vehicular “stickers” at the other 6 gates, allowing vehicles of residents without vehicular “stickers” to pass after showing proof of residency or when the vehicle owners are residents of BF Homes. Vehicle and pedestrian screening will undoubtedly cause inconvenience but this is the price we all have to pay in exchange for our peace of mind.
The mayor is throwing everything, including the kitchen sink, so to speak, at the homeowners for a persistent minority of commercial owners, businessmen and opportunists in a futile attempt to open the privately titled subdivision roads of the subdivision. Indeed, BF Homes Parañaque residents are special. For they have the distinction of having been chosen by the mighty businessman-mayor of Parañaque to be fed to his constituents!
1 comment:
This is a well written assessment of what is sadly happening in BF Homes. We have actually fought two marauding mayors (i cannot think of a more apt term), but in fairness to then Mayor Joey Marquez in 2000 when we had the injunction from the RTC Muntinlupa, he listened to his advisers who told him to obey the writ otherwise he would be facing consequences of breaking the law. He did.
Supposedly amiable Mayor Bernabe has brazenly and openly defying a lawful writ. That is the surprise that baffles. And he is doing it in so cavalier a manner. No wonder this country is still a basket case. And Parañaque down there at bottom. God, I can cry!
I call your attention however to the processing of vehicular and pedestrian traffic in BF Homes. Please note and let this be known that HOMEOWNERS ARE NOT PREVENTED from entering the subdivision if they do not have stickers. All they will be asked for is proof of residency and they will be waved through. This procedure had been in place since 1988 when the Integrated Security Program (ISP) was instituted in the subdivision in cooperation with the developer. The only drawback for the traditionally recalcitrant homeowners is the inconvenience.
Mayor Bernabe in self-serving press releases has been saying we are harassing homeowners and preventing them from entering the subdivision. That is absolutely not true. That press release, which came out on April 21 (Philippine Daily Inquirer) came at the heels of that letter of the President of UBFHAI detailing the specific instances of violations of the writ of injunction of the Court of Appeals. It gave the impression that the police were there upon the so-called complaints. They were not, and their acts were direct violations of the writ. Contempt and other charges have already been filed in the court and in the Ombudsman.
My concern is if a local chief executive like Mayor Bernabe has the gall to defy a lawful writ of no less than the Court of Appeals, how can citizens like us be expected to abide by the law? It is like a slap on our intelligence. Perhaps then Mayor Marquez learned more about good behavior and proper conduct from the entertainment industry.
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