By Manuel L. Morato
My sisters and I would like to appeal to IBP President, Atty. Domingo Egon Q. Cayosa whom I saw on television this morning requesting “for the Judiciary to improve the Philippine Justice System.” Hopefully, not only improve but to totally overhaul. The law of the jungle prevails. With due respect to Atty. Domingo Cayosa, President of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, please consider our cases in Court as one of your case study for it is the first of its kind that could trigger the many similar cases of land grabbing, a family feud that arises from corruption in government departments and agencies causing destruction of many families only because of Courts that kowtow with their crooked gods to do wrong to other legitimate people who are only fighting for their rights in an honorable way.
So many families have been destroyed by corrupt judges and corrupt department officials who side with the wrong side because of “probable” consideration?
Consider our case numbers: Civil Case No. R-QZN-19-17722-CV and Crim. Case No. R-QZN-20-07155-CR. The second pertains to Libel cases against me that should not be because I was defending myself from their Facebook releases that were not truthful.
Let us not forget, there are still people who do not kowtow to such bad habits. I know myself too well. I’ve been on a grinder, so to speak as MTRCB Chairman for six years from 1986 to 1992. No bomba producer was able to buy me. Pinu_ta_in ko ang lumapit sa akin to pass a lewd film totally against the law.
That’s the only way I could stop the “penekula” or “bomba films.” I took the violators to Court and won all the cases.
The Fiscals and Judges then were honorable. They know their obligation to society which we all must work to protect our children from such dastardly films that could destroy their minds as mandated by law.
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On another note, it is indeed not feasible to mix highrise structures within a residential area allowed only by the members of the City Council with the approval of the City Vice Mayor.
The zoning is very clear that along Tomas Morato Avenue, the City Council had passed new zoning in our particular area as “medium…,” or up to seven floors along the avenue. But with the mere approval of the Vice Mayor, as it was in our case, favored persons can go as high as they want. In our case, right next to my four-storey building along the avenue, two highrise buildings, both next to mine were given “Special Permits” to go as high as 21 and 22 floors; first approved by the members of the City Council and finally approved by the then City Vice Mayor, Joy Belmonte Alimurung.
The Mayor has veto powers but does not exercise it because … POLITICS! Then-Mayor Herbert Bautista was unable to do anything under threat.
It is sad that there is a loophole sa batas na sila-sila na rin ang gumawa. One has to be connected with the powers that be to get the favor. It is not easily given to just anybody. One has to belong to those with the right connection. It happened to us. One 21 and another 22 storey condotel, the first of its kind in our residential neighborhood. My 4 storey building is sandwiched by these two monstrous structures and I pray to God they are safe. It is said in the neighborhood that it belongs to one family.
Naaawa din ako sa mga residential one and two storey houses at panay ang reklamo sa ingay sa gulo at sa laking abala hanggang gabi nagpupukpukan ng steel bars at nagbubuhos ng semento.
Our once quiet neighborhood is gone, just because of these two highrise buildings. For two years, we had to bear the noise, the traffic and congestion of our street with huge trucks parked delivering cement, steel bars and pre-fabricated walls that make us all nervous for not too long ago, natuklap ang several slabs and fell on the sidewalk in a commercial building in Mandaluyong or Makati which was televised in the news. It fell on a parked car; and if not for the lockdown, all those people walking on the sidewalk would have been killed.
This is what we fear; even the residential homes that surround the construction site.
Fresh air and the morning sun matatakpan na. Pinutol na lahat ng matataas na puno sa garden ng bahay ng aming magulang; pati nong isang highrise sa harap. Sa mag-asawa itong dalawang highrise building na ito as everybody knows. It’s the same information circulating in the neighborhood.
The noise in these two construction sites next door to us is unbearable, up to night time past 8 P.M. Our only break is when there is lockdown or heavy rains. They stop making noise.
There is supposed to be a law against noise disturbance in the neighborhood. Before, there was a bar-club-restaurant with live entertainment right across from me on the 3rd floor of a building across. The combo was so loud, heard far and wide. I saw several police cars parked and told them to stop the noise they were causing in the neighborhood. That was during the incumbency of Mayor Herbert Bautista. Maski papaano, he was aware of what was happening around the City.
It has been a traumatic experience for us since these 2 highrise buildings rising right beside us in this residential neighborhood, aside from the robbery we suffered from the intentional falsification of my mother’s titles of her property that belongs to us the six children and ended up with one.
May I call the attention of the DILG? Please make it a law for all Barangays to organize a Homeowners Association. What happened to us is foul. Only the former Barangay Captain then, Alberto Flores, gave all the permits to demolish the house of my parents; and other permits without informing the neighborhood. Sinarili niya lahat. The sad part of it all, I know him and his wife well. But he never told me nor my sisters what he and Jose “Pete” Morato were cooking up something. Kaibigan ko pa naman ang pinsan niya, si Raul Lambino, a friend of long ago and one of the lawyers of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
When Raul ran for the Senate, I did what I could do to help. Too bad that I did not know what Barangay Chairman Alberto Flores and my youngest brother, “Pete” (Jose Morato) were cooking up. But when the present Barangay Chairman now Camille Malig David took over, I asked for the records of all the permits given to the destruction of my parents’ ancestral home, none could be found. For one, all the members of the Kagawads were never called to participate. They came to me and told me “na sinarili na lang daw ni Barangay Chairman Alberto Flores. When I asked for the records, we were told that they were all sent to the DILG. But I had that checked by a friend in the DILG, negative daw.
We ought to learn a lesson from what happened to us. We lost the most valuable asset of our beloved parents from the shenanigans of our local officials who find loopholes in everything. The Barangay Chairmen are dictated upon by the Mayors, especially during elections. That should not be the case. And if I may suggest, Barangays without a Homeowners Association must be absorbed by the next Barangay nearby that has one. At least its homeowners can empathize with the next door neighbor.
It is unfair to be victims of exploiters simply for lack of a Homeowners Association to protect the residents, like what happened to us.
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Last October 12, 2020, Monday, I was served a warrant of arrest dated September 24, 2020 which I only received last Monday, October 12, 2020 that “the Court finds the existence of probable cause for the issuance of a warrant of arrest.” It was based on a Joint Resolution dated way back in May 21, 2020 but we were not served. It arrived together with the Order that “the Court finds the existence of probable cause…” This so-called “probable cause” is so overused that it ties down the bail money for months or years that like it or not it’s tantamount to “probable gifts.” It’s so weak that it almost implies something in exchange.
I was sued for Cyberlibel for simply explaining in my column in “Peoples Journal” the truth and to deny the lies they were so unfairly floating around.
For comments and suggestions email at mlmorato@yahoo.com