HERMOSA, Bataan – Fencing on the 213-hectare disputed land in the upland village of Sumalo here went under close watch of police officers and security guards without any resistance from residents on Thursday.
Police officers and security guards with shields secured workers doing the fencing at the back of houses and barangay centers.
Supt. Benjamin Silo, Jr., chief of the Provincial Police Safety Office in Bataan, said a team of police officers from the Regional and PPSO were in the village to preserve peace and order and assist the sheriff in implementing the court order.
Sheriff Corazon Bautista said they were in the village to implement the Writ of Injunction issued by the court ordering residents not to stop the fencing of the 213-hectare property.
She said that residents stopped the fencing in 2008 so that owners sought permanent injunction that was granted by Executive Judge Jose Ener Fernando of Regional Trial Court Branch 5 in Dinalupihan, Bataan.
The 213-hectare land is allegedly covered by land titles TCT Nos. T-264429, T-264430 and T-246846. Riverforest Development Corporation, Alexander Litton, Edwina L. Ortigas, Edward Litton, Jr. and Dorothy L. Baranasked asked for the issuance of a Writ of permanent Injunction.
“Masakit na masakit sa kalooban ko ginagawa nila dahil hindi naman kami masasamang tao,” said 72-year old Tansing Poblete who was almost in tears. She said farmers could no longer enter their farms because of the fence.
Fe Andulan said they were expecting the Litton Family to come to have a dialogue with them but instead “santambak na pulis at magbabakod ang dumating na para kaming kriminal.”
Some residents on Wednesday afternoon threatened to block the perimeter fencing on Thursday of 213 hectares of land despite a Writ of Injunction issued by a Regional Trial Court in the province.
Ret. Col. Renato Rapisura, security manager of Litton and Company, said Sheriff Bautista should have implemented Wednesday the Writ of Injunction but gave in to the request of the Hermosa town mayor and Sumalo barangay captain to postpone the execution of the order.
Rapisura said that they will resume cyclone fencing at 8:00 a.m. of Thursday in the presence of the Sheriff and police officers to secure the Writ of Injunction and to preserve peace and order.
“Magkakagulo, haharangin namin kapag nagbakod sila,” said Fe Andulan, one of the residents of Sumalo. Other village dwellers likewise voiced strong opposition to the fencing that they said will isolate them from their farms.
“Kapag binakuran ang likod ng bahay namin, paano kami mabubuhay kung aagawan nila kami ng sinasaka, nauna nga ang aming mga ninuno dito kesa sa mga Litton,” the woman said.
A former barangay captain of Sumalo, 82-year old Miguel Bautista, said he has been an occupant of the area since 1948. He claimed they could not understand how the Litton Family got titles for the whole village land in 1979.
“Gusto naming ipagpatuloy ang laban kaya lang dala nga ng kahirapan ay wala kaming magawa sa ginagawa nilang pagliliskub sa buong paligid na para kaming ikinukulong sa barangay,” the old man said.
Barangay chairman Rolando Martinez claimed the 213-hectare land titled to the Litton Family is the whole barangay Sumalo where 280 families reside, mostly deriving their income from farming.
He said he could not do otherwise but to abide by the court ruling.
