A party-list legislator has filed a bill providing that only “final and executory” orders from courts could be used in evicting squatters or demolishing squatter colonies.
House Bill 151, filed by Rep. Rodante Marcoleta of the party-list group Sagip, is now pending in the House of Representatives’ Committee on Housing and Urban Development, which has created a technical working group to look into the various aspects of the bill and consolidate it with similar measures.
The bill would amend Section 28(c) of RA 7279, or the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992.
That provision of RA 7279 enumerates the circumstances where eviction or demolitions may be allowed, a court order being the primary justification for such activity.
However, HB 151 would provide that the court order referred to should be one that was already “final and executory.”
That would make it impossible for landowners whose properties had been invaded by squatters to recover their land, since “final and executory” orders are usually issued in cases that go up to the Supreme Court.
“Meaning to say, if it is only an order which is still appealable in courts, that is not the kind of order that is enforced to be contemplated under the law under RA 7279,” Marcoleta said in his sponsorship speech.
“Normally, those who win in a land-dispute case are the owners of the land who have the wealth and influence most of the time.
“Even as the case can still be appealed, the land owners would already file for a motion for execution pending appeal, the grant of which would allow them to evict the occupants.”
Marcoleta said his bill would allow occupants of the land, who were usually poor, to take their appeals up to the highest court possible.
“Let us give the occupant or defendant a chance up to the highest kind of court. If the Supreme Court has issued the order, then that is the court order that we can use, meaning it is final,” he said.
“This amendatory provision will be of help to the defendant to fight for his rights up to degree that his struggles can rise up to.”
