The Cabatangan Property: Zamboanga City’s Holy Grail (2nd of 4 parts)

BOTH visionaries and strong supporters of autonomy, under PD 1618, Rear Admiral Espaldon and Chairman Bob Tugung envisioned the Regional Center to serve as the central hub whereby an accelerated pace of economic, social and political growth could be better achieved and maintained. Most of the National Departments’ regional offices were to be relocated to this site (and this was done to some extent somehow) which allowed the efficient monitoring of the implementation of developmental efforts within the region, most specifically of projects that involved the participation of different national offices. The Center’s mission was to create a realistic and practical approach to regional development, like a “one stop shop.” In general, this was the rationale behind the purchase of the properties in Cabatangan and which is known then and now as the “Cabatangan Regional Government Center,” (the “Center”) which was officially the seat of the Sangguniang Pampook (Regional Legislative Assembly) and the Lupong Tagapagpaganap ng Pook (Regional Executive Council).

Incidentally, the first occupant of the Center was my late father, Ulbert Ulama “Bob” Tugung, Al Haj, and its last occupant was my mother, Chairperson Elnorita Pamaran Tugung. As Chairman of the Regional Executive Council, or Lupong Tagapagpaganap ng Pook, of Region IX, Bob erected the imposing white building, which he aptly named “Astanah Kasanyangan,” or “The Palace of Peace.” A champion and one of the fathers of autonomy, he, being the first head of the Regional Autonomous Government of Region IX (covers the following geopolitical entities: Provinces of Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga del Norte and the cities of Zamboanga, Pagadian, Dipolog and Dapitan), which is the forerunner of the current ARMM, (Bob) envisioned an autonomous government that is peaceful, united, inclusive, fair, dynamic, progressive, and a “government of the people, by the people, for the people” with the Center serving as the epitome of such maxim.

Cabatangan, which has a land area of approximately 74 hectares, is by and large a PUBLIC LAND. However, some, if not most of the occupants, claimed ownership by virtue of long standing physical possession, as manifested by the houses they have constructed thereon. Technically, therefore, in the absence of a title, they are SQUATTING on a public land but with putative rights of acquired ownership due to the length of their occupancy. And with rights vested due to prescription, they can apply for title to the lot that they occupy under the Homestead Act.

This then pave the way for the purchase of the “rights”, lot by lot, from the residents residing or squatting in the area. And it was Atty. Lidinila Reyes, legal counsel of Southern Command (Southcom), Office of the Regional Commissioner (ORC) and Lupong Tagapagpaganap ng Pook (LTP) later, who was commissioned to buy the HOMESTEAD RIGHTS from all of the residents residing within the boundaries of the conceptualized Cabatangan Regional Government Center. This was not an easy task to do. Atty. Reyes had to painstakingly convince and cajole the residents in the area to sell their rights. That process even continued during the tenure of Chairpersons Sali Wali and Noring Tugung who took over the helm of LTP IX, successively. Ditto, the process of donating lots to national government offices was done by Bob Tugung and his successors. And these donations were made by a mere Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) and not by a deed of absolute sale, or deed of transfer, because LTP IX had not yet titled most of the purchased lots. (To be continued tomorrow)