Trial on Aloguinsan lot dispute resumes
THE Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Toledo City will resume on Thursday its hearing on the injunction case lodged earlier against the members of the Sr. San Roque Farmers’ Association over a 168-hectare farm land in Barangay Bonbon, Aloguinsan, Cebu.
The case resulted in a bloody clash last Aug. 29 between farmers, who were tilling the lot, and the police officers who were tasked to help enforce a court order that allowed the Gantuangco family to fence the property.Criminal cases for direct assault and resisting arrest were filed against 39 farmers who were members of the association, while an Amparo suit was lodged against the police.
Atty. Rico Tautho, one of the counsels of the Gantuangco family, hopes that the atmosphere during the hearing before Judge Hermes Montero will be “more amiable” than the Aug. 29 incident.
Offer
“There is a settlement offer on the table,” Tautho said, referring to a proposal he and his co-counsels raised in behalf of the Gantuangco family during the last hearing on Sept. 20.
The Gantuangcos are offering 100-square-meter residential lots—complete with rowhouses—to each of the 39 members of the Sr. San Roque Farmers’ Association or a five-hectare communal farm land.
“The offer must have impressed the judge because he suggested to the farmers that they study the proposal,” Tautho said.
But Atty. Kim Mendoza said in a separate interview that the farmers have decided to reject the offer, as per their last consultation. On Thursday, they will submit a counter-offer to the judge, she added.
Farmers’ version
“We are now in the process of drafting it,” she said.
Their version, she said, will be more in keeping with their original position—that they are the original owners of the land, not the Gantuangcos.
“The farmers are willing to give one hectare of land to Juphil Gantuangco,” Mendoza said.
They are also willing to give one hectare of land to Aloguinsan Mayor Caesar Moreno and Rep. Pablo John Garcia (Cebu, third district), she said, without explaining why.
“The only requirement is that they till the land themselves,” Mendoza said.
Tautho declined to respond when sought for comment, saying he’d rather wait for the hearing. He added that he still hopes that conditions will change toward a more mutually favorable outcome between now and Oct. 20.
In the meantime, he said, they are readying an assistance package to a newly formed group composed of what he said are 150 former Sr. San Roque Farmers’ Association members.
The new group, known as the Bonbon Livelihood Association, was launched last Saturday, with Mayor Moreno inducting its officers.
“The group’s membership is tasked with coming up with a livelihood program which the Gantuancos are willing to help finance,” Tautho said.
The association’s farmers, on the other hand, are still contending with the recent dismissal of their Amparo petition, said Tautho.
Impact
Atty. Ian Manticajon, interviewed separately, confirmed the dismissal but denied that it had any significant impact.
He said the denial was based on technicality, not on legal or factual basis, and that they intend to re-file it as an “omnibus motion for the issuance of a writ of Amparo.”
He explained that Judge Ruben Altubar dismissed their petition because the direct assault and resisting arrest cases against the farmers, which was the basis for the Amparo petition, have reached the court and have been raffled to Judge Montero.
“Under the rules, it is this court that has jurisdiction now,” Manticajon said.
Montero set the arraignment for the criminal cases on Nov. 22.
But before the Amparo motion, Manticajon said, the farmers will first file a motion seeking Montero’s inhibition from the direct assault and resisting arrest cases, on the grounds that it was he who heard the injunction case and that it was his ruling that precipitated the Aug. 29 clash.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on October 18, 2011.