ANGELES CITY – The refusal of the police as well as village officials to act on the complaint against land grabbers who invaded his property has prompted prominent businessman Ruperto Cruz to seek the intervention of higher authorities.
In a letter address to Porac Mayor Condralito “Carling” Dela Cruz and the municipal council last Friday, Cruz said Barangay Sta. Cruz officials refused to act on his complaint claiming that the area of the incident, Royal Garden Estate (RGE), is “not in their jurisdiction.”
The 140-hectare RGE straddles the boundaries of Porac and this city.
Cruz is seeking the assistance of Porac town officials to stop a group of individuals who are currently occupying portions of the RGE which includes the championship golf course Royal Garden Golf and Country Club, Cignal Satellite TV of business tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan, handsome mansions, a resort, three hotels, a European replica chapel and soon to be a 120- bed hospital similar to St. Luke’s Medical Center and Makati Medical center in Manila.
Cruz said the invaders are also occupying a PEZA economic zone area that will generate large scale employment for Porac and the donated area for Bahay Pagibig home for the aged, Bahay Bata orphanage and Indu.
Cruz said the invaders whom he described as “agaw lupa (land grabbers) or pure extortionists are illegally farming in his property.
“They destroyed the fence in such a way that we lost security feature inside the whole subdivision. Intruders go in and out of our premises. We also lost lights, wires and other construction materials,” Cruz complained.
Cruz asked Dela Cruz to prevent what he described as “wrongdoings of land grabbing” in a legal way.
“If we allow these people to go on with their wrongdoings, it will deprive workers of permanent jobs and jeopardize the construction of a hospital,” he wrote.
“We help Porac change its local image into first class city and provide productivity to the residents to make them stay here and in a way lessen overseas Filipino workers,” he said.
“Agri-business is essential but will not increase Porac’s revenues and change its global image,” he added.
Cruz urged the mayor to act swiftly as the incident will send a wrong signal to investors and locators in the area who may be intimidated by the negative development.
“We are legal, they are illegal,” Cruz said adding that all pertinent documents of his property are in order.
