ZAMBOANGA CITY - Mayor Beng Climaco, who is running for congresswoman in District 1, said she will vigorously pursue - if elected - Zamboanga’s rightful claims to the sprawling Cabatangan property, used by the Moro National Liberation Front in staging deadly attacks here in 2001.
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| Google satellite map of Barangay Cabatangan and the Cabatangan Complex in Zamboanga City. (Al Jacinto) |
Climaco said it has been the long desire of the Zamboangueño people and the local government to purchase and legally own the properties of the defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in the village of Cabatangan.
The mayor said she has repeatedly
brought this issue to the national government and recently again with the
Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) under Carlito
Galvez.
She said the OPAPP Technical Working
Group has already conducted the necessary survey of the Cabatangan property,
also known as Cabatangan Complex. “I gave them a deadline that it should be
finished before President Duterte leaves his office this year because it has
been years and years of appeals for the City of Zamboanga since it (Cabatangan
property) was turned over to then (Rear) Admiral (Romulo) Espaldon,” she said.
Espaldon, who was then chief of
Southwest Command and later on named Southern Command, served as the first
and only Commissioner for Region IX until it was abolished and replaced with
the Lupong Tagapagpaganap ng Pook in 1979 in Cabatangan.
According to Climaco, records show
that the 72-hectare Cabatangan property was titled under the name of the
Republic of the Philippines. Prior
to the establishment of ARMM, the Lupong Tagapagpaganap ng Pook purchased
the property in Zamboanga City and turned it into its seat of government.
ARMM was created by virtue of the
Republic Act No. 6734 which was signed into law by President Corazon Aquino
on August 1, 1989.
“This is something we must ensure
that is pursued and cemented and as representatives of Congress, this pursuit
is very important, the documents and land titles of the properties should
belong to the City of Zamboanga,” Climaco said.
“We have been squatters on our own
property for years and years. It should address the (November 2001 MNLF)
violence in Cabatangan and then the violence during the (September 2013 MNLF)
Zamboanga siege,” she said, pointing out that the pursuit to get back the
Cabatangan property “reflects in a leadership that has continuity - a
leadership that is credible, courageous and capable such as Zamboanga Rep.
Cesar Jimenez, now running as mayor under Team Climaco, and who also vowed
to reclaim the Cabatangan property if he wins in the May election.
Climaco said the local government had
long wanted to take over the Cabatangan property which has been identified as a
new government center of Zamboanga in an effort to decongest the central
business district. She said the local government has already developed the
hilltops in Cabatangan - except the prime lots being claimed by the defunct
ARMM - with the construction of the local government disaster command center,
the Covid-19 mega isolation facility, the Balay Silangan and other government
structures.
The mayor also cited Republic Act
9054 or the expanded ARMM law, saying 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 such as Zamboanga
City and sell the same to the host local governments.
In 2018, Climaco said that Defense
Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told her that the national government would purchase
the Cabatangan Complex since the local government is interested in buying it.
In her past meetings with President Rodrigo Duterte and even with Lorenzana,
Climaco said she discussed with them the Cabatangan property, the city’s
non-inclusion in Muslim autonomous region, and the return of the Zamboanga
regional center and the proposed construction of a new airport.
The mayor said she also handed over
to Lorenzana a letter containing the list of ARMM properties located in
Cabatangan, including a map and corresponding photocopies of titles of the properties.
There was no immediate statement from the current Muslim autonomous regional government about the Climaco’s plan and Lorenzana’s promise to the mayor. The Cabatangan property is situated near national government agencies and military facilities - the Department of Education, Department of Health Training Centers, and Commission on Audit Regional Office, the Civil Service Commission Regional Office, the Population Commission Training Center, the National Telecommunications Commission, the Philippine Army Brigade, the Philippine Marines and the Philippine Navy barracks, among others. (Mindanao Examiner)
