Kalinga PPOC to activate Anti-squatting Task Force

In efforts to avert squatting here, the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) decided to reactivate the anti-squatting task force.

“Before it become too late, the standard roads Tabuk City is known for has to be protected from further occupancy by private individuals and those who made them into business expansion,” the PPOC declared.
Department of Trade and Industry Provincial Director Grace Baluyan reported that squatting is one reason why the business climate in this city is not conducive for investors to come in.

“Progress is so slow in the province because investors who want to come in have no guarantee that the lands they will buy to establish their business are not problematic areas or are not squatted”, she said.

In the PPOC meeting last week under the Chairmanship of Governor Jocel Baac, the members adopted the creation of an adhoc committee to study the creation and composition of a new task force to be headed by a lawyer that will include solving squatting on private properties.

The first step taken during the meeting was to limit the composition of the task force members putting those who can act and show results and attached it as a sub-committee under the PPOC.

The second approach is a review, which the Sangguniang Panlalawigan is doing, of the anti-squatting ordinance for possible amendments to give more teeth on the law.
Historically, land dispute in Kalinga has claimed lives of many and brought tribes into war. The latest of the is the armed struggle in Rizal between the joint LGU-Police-Military demolition team and the alleged illegal occupants in Malapiat, Rizal.
/PIA-Kalinga