The Provincial Government has resumed its negotiations with the Philippine National Police through the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 in taking back the "PC Hills" property within the Banilad Estate.
Gov. Gwen Garcia on Monday, Nov. 6, met with PRO 7 officials now under the leadership of regional director PBGen Anthony Aberin to restart negotiations on the matter. Capitol had already initiated talks with the previous leadership of PRO 7 but these did not progress because of change of a regional leadership.
PRO 7 currently occupies and maintains facilities within the 25,583-square meter PC Hills property, located in Brgy. Apas, Cebu City.
This property was donated by the Provincial Government in 1958 to the Third Philippine Constabulary Zone for the purpose of using the said parcels of land as the site of the headquarters and
enlisted men's barracks of the Third Philippine Constabulary Zone.
The condition was that the ownership of the said real property shall revert to the Provincial Government if and when the same will
no longer be needed by the Philippine Constabulary (PC) for the purpose for which they may have been donated.
Now, Capitol lawyers have since asserted this condition, saying that the PC had since been dissolved.
The PC began as a police force of the American colonial government in 1901, and was eventually subsumed under the military.
The 1987 Constitution that was crafted after the EDSA People Power Revolution, however, called for the creation of a national police force that is civilian in character.
Congress enacted a law to implement this constitutional mandate, giving birth in 1991 to what is now the Philippine National Police.
Capitol legal consultant Atty. Jong Sepulveda argued that the law is siding with the Provincial Government's position, especially in terms of the condition that was not met.
During the meeting, PRO 7 and Capitol agreed that they would do a joint survey on Nov. 14 at the site to assess what the police actually need in terms of area for these existing facilities.
Capitol proposed to relocate these facilities currently at the PC Hills property and replicate them.
This is the same method undertaken by Capitol with the other state agencies in the farmer's relocation negotiations with them. | Carlo Lorenciana