Zamboanga City – If elected as House representative for District 1 in the May 9, 2022 elections, Mayor Maria Isabelle ‘Beng’ Climaco vowed to pursue and cement the city government’s long desire to purchase and legally own the properties of the defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in Barangay Cabatangan, this city.
Climaco told “Dateline Teleradyo” Thursday morning that the Technical Working Group (TWG) of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) was in the city last month and conducted the necessary survey of the Cabatangan-ARMM property.
“I gave them a deadline that it should be finished before Pres. Duterte leaves his office this year, because it has been years and years of appeals for the city of Zamboanga since it (Cabatangan lot) was turned over to then (Rear) Admiral (Romulo) Espaldon,” she said.
According to Climaco, the data would show that the lot in Cabatangan was titled under the name of the Republic of the Philippines but during the Marcos Era it was turned over to Admiral Espaldon, which eventually became part of the property of the ARMM, the forerunner of what is now known as the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
“This is something we must ensure that is pursued and cemented and as representative of Congress, this pursuit is very important… the documents and land titles of the properties should belong to the city of Zamboanga,” Climaco stressed.
“We have been squatter on our own property for years and years. It should address the violence in Cabatangan and then the violence during the Zamboanga siege,” she quipped, pointing out that the pursuit “reflects in a leadership that has continuity—a leadership that is credible, courageous and capable in the person of Cong. Jawo Jimenez”, who is aiming to succeed her as mayor.
Since the previous administrations to the present under Climaco, the city government had wanted to take over the ARRM lots in Cabatangan, which has been identified as a new government center of Zamboanga where to relocate the City Hall and other offices to decongest the central business district.
To date, the city has already developed the Cabatangan hilltops, except the prime lots belonging to the defunct ARMM, with the construction of the disaster command center, the mega isolation facility, the Balay Silangan and other structures.
Under RA 9054 or the expanded ARMM law, the national government through the Office of the President is mandated to take possession of or buy the properties occupied and owned by the ARMM in non-ARMM areas like Zamboanga City and sell the same to the host local government units.
However, observers lamented that the dissolution of the ARMM following the approval of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), which created the BARMM, would make even more difficult for the city of Zamboanga to buy the lots right within its own territory. (Vic Larato, photo courtesy of Zamboanga City Information Office)
