House panel supports bill on sale of UP land to residents

A bill allowing the sale of a portion of the University of the Philippines (UP) campus in Diliman, Quezon City to its residents has been endorsed in the House of Representatives.

The committee on housing and urban development chaired by Negros Occidental Rep. Alfredo Benitez recommended the approval of Bill 165 authored by Quezon City Rep. Feliciano Belmonte Jr.

The proposed law is titled, “An Act authorizing the sale of Barangay Krus na Ligas to its legitimate residents, amending for the purpose Republic Act 9500, otherwise known as the University of the Philippines Charter of 2008.”

Belmonte said Krus na Ligas has been in existence as early as the Spanish occupation of the country.

“On April 2, 1949, President Quirino sold a large parcel of land to UP, including the Krus na Ligas area. Various petitions had been made by residents to protest their lands, but ownership remained with UP,” he said.

Since then, he said a number of UP administrations recognized the need “to transfer ownership of Krus na Ligas to its legitimate residents, including an attempt to donate the area to the local government of Quezon City.”

“Unfortunately, these efforts have not come into fruition,” he added.

The bill defines who are legitimate residents of Krus na Ligas. It mandates the creation of an inter-agency committee headed by the local govern- ment of Quezon City and composed of UP, the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, and the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor.

The committee would issue the necessary rules and regulations, and determine the actual metes and bounds of Barangay Krus na Ligas and its valuation.

The total area to be sold to residents would not exceed 25 hectares and would not include any existing vital UP facility. –