FENCE. Cagayan de Oro Mayor oscar Moreno (left). At right the fence built by Barangay 33 chairman Conrad Lim around his house in Barangay Lapasan. A dispute over the property, a result of a reclamation, has slowed down a coastal road project of the public works department. (PHOTO BY NITZ ARANCON)
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By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent

MAYOR Oscar Moreno on Wednesday frowned over the public works department’s plan to subject a Lapasan property claimed by Barangay 33 chairman Conrad Lim as his to expropriation proceedings.

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“Expropriation can only be allowed if he (Lim) is the owner of the property, and if the structures he built there are legal or at the very least, he is a builder in good faith. But that is not so because he had no legal basis for that construction,” said Moreno, a lawyer by profession.

This paper has been trying to seek Lim’s comment but the barangay chairman could not be located. He was neither in his office at CKL Construction in Gusa or the barangay hall of Barangay 33 when this paper went there to seek his comment. But at the barangay hall, a village official said Lim was in Ozamiz City to attend to an ailing relative.

Moreno complained about the delay in the construction of the coastal road, a project that is part of a P4-billion road system the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has been working on for at least 20 years already.

Officials said a portion of nearly 3,000-square meter property that was developed by Lim is in the way of the Lapasan section of the coastal road project. The property is a result of Lim’s reclamation project that officials said was undertaken without a government green light.

Once completed, the four-lane coastal road is seen to decongest busy sections of CM Recto Avenue and nearby areas in the city proper where traffic jams have been inconveniencing motorists and commuters daily.

Moreno said he told DPWH officials: “Unsa ba ni? Kinsa ba ni si Condrad? Nganong mahadlok man mo?”

He also called on Lim to give way and not force the issue, pointing out that whatever documents the barangay chairman has been using to claim the property as his are insufficient.

Moreno said this after DPWH-10 legal officer Melanie Enopia told the city council that Lim was granted amnesty by the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) for undertaking the reclamation project without its consent.

He said a PRA amnesty does not mean that Lim could continue his development and use of the reclamation area without securing permit from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

“Naa may DENR, dili man kay PRA lang. Dili kumpleto ang proseso. Ang PRA usa lang sa mga authority nia-a, pero naa man gihapoy DENR. Ug siempre na-a pay mga building permit sa city hall,” he said.

A lawyer, James Judith, earlier threatened to sue DPWH or any official who would cause the release of public funds to pay Lim for the disputed Lapasan property. He argued that Lim cannot be paid for a property that’s considered to be part of the public domain.

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