Manila Rep. Manuel Luis T. Lopez on Tuesday, March 9, slammed the move to sell, develop or lease the site Veterans Memorial Building located on the highly-commercial Arroceros street in Ermita, Manila, saying Philippine Veterans Affairs Office is not the owner of the property.
Lopez aired his opposition to the proposed sale after the technical working group formed by the House Committee on Veterans Affairs and Welfare started consolidating three bills proposing to tap for commercial purposes PVAO properties.
The TWG chaired by Bataan Rep. Geraldine Roman was tasked to consolidate three bills filed by Reps. Ruffy Biazon (PDP-Laban, Muntinlupa City); Jose Antonio Sy-Alvarado (NP, Bulacan) and Manuel Cabochan III (Magdalo Partylist) that proposed to use the proceeds of the commercial activity or sale of the properties to augment veterans’ and military retirees’ pension and benefits.
“It is my firm and unequivocal position that all property owned by or under the care of the City of Manila should remain with and be safeguarded by the City, for the benefit of its residents,” said Lopez during the TWG meeting on Tuesday, March 9.
“Should this TWG, veterans affairs committee, any other committee of Congress and for that matter any other instrumentality of government take a different position, I signify my continuing objection because this goes against the best interest of the City of Manila and my beloved Manilenyos,” he said.
Lopez, chairman of the House Committee on Metro Manila Development, claimed that the said property on Arroceros “is not a property of PVAO.”
He insisted that this is actually reserved as a park pursuant to Presidential Proclamation 435.
Lopez said PVAO had “impliedly” admitted this when it requested Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Roy Cimatu to recommend a presidential proclamation for the titling of the questioned property.
“Absent the issuance of such a Presidential Proclamation, the use for the property remains and this must be ensured by the City of Manila and the Manila Parks Bureau,” he stressed.
However, in a letter to the TWG, PVAO claimed ownership, pointing out that it has been in “open, continuous, exclusive and uncontested possession of the Arroceros property since 1955 when the Veterans Memorial Building was erected pursuant to Republic Act No. 920.
Lopez said RA 920 is a mere appropriations law and that no president has declared the property as “alienable and excluded from the reserved property of Manila.”