Group fears impending eviction of Tagoloan families

By SHIELA MAE BUTLIG
Correspondent .

A LEADER of a group of landless people on Tuesday sounded alarm bells over what he said was a planned demolition operation that would affect at least 65 households in the village of Ganghaan in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental.

Requinto Lourito, 45, said a number of families on a property in Ganghaan  have refused to be relocated to far-flung areas in the town unless the government could provide them a decent road, electricity and potable water.

Lourito’s group submitted a petition to the Tagoloan town government to ask that their demands be met before they agree to move out from what he said was a common property of the Emano family.

He said there were some 300 households there but the number went down to about 65 following negotiations with Dr. Hernando Emano whose son Heckert Jude is Tagoloan mayor.

The elder Emano is reportedly the property administrator of the family.

Lourito said some agreed to be paid from P3,000 to P12 thousand each plus coconut lumber for house construction.

He said the elder Emano had offered to have them relocated to Rosario,  then Maribojoc but they declined because these areas are far-flung.

Today, he said, many were considering to be relocated to another far-flung area, Nasalavan, in Sta. Ana, Tagoloan, on the condition that they would be provided with a decent road, and access to eletricity and potable water.

“One year na mi gahangyo nga tagaan unta lage mi og kuryente, tubig ug kalsada kung aha man mi ma-relocate pero sa pagkakaron wa pamay tubag,” said Lourito.

In a statement sent to this paper, Marilyn Lacorte, vice chair of the Ganghaan Landless Association (Gala), said they have waited a year for the town mayor to provide them a decent relocation site and stop the impending eviction of families from the Emano family’s property.

Lacorte said the proposed relocation site is private property and there is no guarantee that these would be given to the poverty-stricken families.