Lot owners victimized by squatters and city gov't
Lot owners victimized by squatters and city gov't
Updated 11:19pm (Mla time) Nov 02, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on Page A14 of the November 3, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
WHAT'S happening to Quezon City? Under Mayor Feliciano Belmonte, it has become the richest city in the Philippines, with billions of pesos in excess funds deposited in banks. But Quezon City also has the biggest number of squatters, so that it is called "the squatter capital of the Philippines." That means it also has the most number of lot owners victimized by squatters.
Ironically, Quezon City is now the richest city because of these property owners paying increasingly higher real estate taxes, and they include the lot owners whose lots have been taken over by squatters. Yes, the victimized owners have to continue paying realty taxes even if squatters are the ones using and benefiting from the properties. To add insult to injury, the property taxes keep rising as the city assessor keeps increasing their assessed value at the same rate as lots free from squatters. And in the unkindest cut of all, the city government refuses to help the lot owners eject the squatters from their properties even as it forces the owners to pay the higher taxes.
With so much money in the banks, the city government can afford to buy vacant lots at fair market prices, construct medium-rise homes, and relocate the squatters. The true owners can then build their own homes on their lots and pay more and higher taxes and the city's coffers will be even richer. At the same time, it would be serving all its constituents, taxpayers and non-taxpayers alike.
But Quezon City does no such thing. It would rather serve the non-taxpayers, the squatters, at the expense of the taxpayers, the property owners. While it does not help the owners to reclaim their properties, its congressmen, councilors and “barangay” [neighborhood district] council officials coddle the squatters.
Using taxpayers' money, they build basketball courts for the squatters-on areas set aside for public streets. They build concrete streets for the squatters through private lots, complete with waiting sheds, and the city council passes ordinances authorizing tricycles carrying squatters to pass through private streets in private subdivisions maintained with private funds. At the same time, they refuse to allocate funds for legitimate streets long scheduled for construction. The congressmen, quick to allocate pork barrel funds for basketball courts and waiting sheds, paradoxically refuse to contribute part of their pork barrel to help fund these streets.
A good example is the unfinished Congressional Avenue Extension. This avenue runs from the EDSA highway, across from Roosevelt Avenue, and, when finished, will connect to Luzon Avenue. It runs parallel to Commonwealth and Quezon Avenues and would greatly ease the heavy traffic in these two streets. The longer portion, from EDSA to Tandang Sora Avenue, with eight lanes, has been finished and in use for many years. But the remaining 1.5-kilometer portion to Luzon Avenue remains unfinished until now. The reason? Squatters!
The right of way is there, but it has been invaded by squatters, no doubt encouraged by local officials courting votes.
Taxpaying residents of more than a dozen subdivisions lining this unfinished portion, who have to pass through other subdivisions and pay several vehicle sticker fees to go home, have formed a confederation that has long been lobbying the government to finish the street. A number of public works secretaries have come and gone but they all pleaded "no budget." The House of Representatives appropriations committee forgets to appropriate the funds every year.
To his credit, former congressman Chuck Mathay used some of his pork barrel for the paving of part of one lane, but it is like a drop in the bucket. Vice President Noli de Castro, Senator Juan Flavier and at least four congressmen living in one of the subdivisions along Congressional Avenue would be benefited by its completion but none of them contributed even a peso of their pork.
Mathay was also negotiating for a relocation site for the squatters but he was defeated in the last elections, and I don't know what his replacement is doing about it.
There is a big vacant lot at the corner of Congressional and Luzon Avenues that is big enough for two or three medium-rise buildings for the squatters. With its billions, the city government can easily buy the lot from the Development Bank of the Philippines and construct such buildings. Local governments, after all, are mandated to provide homes or relocation sites for their squatters. But nobody is moving, nobody except the residents of the subdivisions beating their heads against a blank bureaucratic wall to have the street finished. National and local officials would rather coddle non-taxpaying squatters than serve the law-abiding citizens paying the taxes used for their salaries.
Much of the billions Quezon City has come from real estate taxes paid by the property owners who are threatened with losing their properties if they don't pay on time. The city has an unforgiving tax collection effort. You are delinquent in your realty tax payment, your property gets auctioned off. While it is very difficult to eject squatters, it is very easy for legitimate owners to lose their properties through public auction.
But is Quezon City overdoing it? Is it too quick in selling properties at public auction? Worse, have slick operators and land-grabbing syndicates infiltrated the auction proceedings to grab land from unsuspecting owners through what we may call "legal robbery"? Believe it or not, some people have already been victimized this way.
That will be discussed in the next column.
Updated 11:19pm (Mla time) Nov 02, 2004
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on Page A14 of the November 3, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
WHAT'S happening to Quezon City? Under Mayor Feliciano Belmonte, it has become the richest city in the Philippines, with billions of pesos in excess funds deposited in banks. But Quezon City also has the biggest number of squatters, so that it is called "the squatter capital of the Philippines." That means it also has the most number of lot owners victimized by squatters.
Ironically, Quezon City is now the richest city because of these property owners paying increasingly higher real estate taxes, and they include the lot owners whose lots have been taken over by squatters. Yes, the victimized owners have to continue paying realty taxes even if squatters are the ones using and benefiting from the properties. To add insult to injury, the property taxes keep rising as the city assessor keeps increasing their assessed value at the same rate as lots free from squatters. And in the unkindest cut of all, the city government refuses to help the lot owners eject the squatters from their properties even as it forces the owners to pay the higher taxes.
With so much money in the banks, the city government can afford to buy vacant lots at fair market prices, construct medium-rise homes, and relocate the squatters. The true owners can then build their own homes on their lots and pay more and higher taxes and the city's coffers will be even richer. At the same time, it would be serving all its constituents, taxpayers and non-taxpayers alike.
But Quezon City does no such thing. It would rather serve the non-taxpayers, the squatters, at the expense of the taxpayers, the property owners. While it does not help the owners to reclaim their properties, its congressmen, councilors and “barangay” [neighborhood district] council officials coddle the squatters.
Using taxpayers' money, they build basketball courts for the squatters-on areas set aside for public streets. They build concrete streets for the squatters through private lots, complete with waiting sheds, and the city council passes ordinances authorizing tricycles carrying squatters to pass through private streets in private subdivisions maintained with private funds. At the same time, they refuse to allocate funds for legitimate streets long scheduled for construction. The congressmen, quick to allocate pork barrel funds for basketball courts and waiting sheds, paradoxically refuse to contribute part of their pork barrel to help fund these streets.
A good example is the unfinished Congressional Avenue Extension. This avenue runs from the EDSA highway, across from Roosevelt Avenue, and, when finished, will connect to Luzon Avenue. It runs parallel to Commonwealth and Quezon Avenues and would greatly ease the heavy traffic in these two streets. The longer portion, from EDSA to Tandang Sora Avenue, with eight lanes, has been finished and in use for many years. But the remaining 1.5-kilometer portion to Luzon Avenue remains unfinished until now. The reason? Squatters!
The right of way is there, but it has been invaded by squatters, no doubt encouraged by local officials courting votes.
Taxpaying residents of more than a dozen subdivisions lining this unfinished portion, who have to pass through other subdivisions and pay several vehicle sticker fees to go home, have formed a confederation that has long been lobbying the government to finish the street. A number of public works secretaries have come and gone but they all pleaded "no budget." The House of Representatives appropriations committee forgets to appropriate the funds every year.
To his credit, former congressman Chuck Mathay used some of his pork barrel for the paving of part of one lane, but it is like a drop in the bucket. Vice President Noli de Castro, Senator Juan Flavier and at least four congressmen living in one of the subdivisions along Congressional Avenue would be benefited by its completion but none of them contributed even a peso of their pork.
Mathay was also negotiating for a relocation site for the squatters but he was defeated in the last elections, and I don't know what his replacement is doing about it.
There is a big vacant lot at the corner of Congressional and Luzon Avenues that is big enough for two or three medium-rise buildings for the squatters. With its billions, the city government can easily buy the lot from the Development Bank of the Philippines and construct such buildings. Local governments, after all, are mandated to provide homes or relocation sites for their squatters. But nobody is moving, nobody except the residents of the subdivisions beating their heads against a blank bureaucratic wall to have the street finished. National and local officials would rather coddle non-taxpaying squatters than serve the law-abiding citizens paying the taxes used for their salaries.
Much of the billions Quezon City has come from real estate taxes paid by the property owners who are threatened with losing their properties if they don't pay on time. The city has an unforgiving tax collection effort. You are delinquent in your realty tax payment, your property gets auctioned off. While it is very difficult to eject squatters, it is very easy for legitimate owners to lose their properties through public auction.
But is Quezon City overdoing it? Is it too quick in selling properties at public auction? Worse, have slick operators and land-grabbing syndicates infiltrated the auction proceedings to grab land from unsuspecting owners through what we may call "legal robbery"? Believe it or not, some people have already been victimized this way.
That will be discussed in the next column.
posted by Dante at 10:34 AM
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