A major land dispute has intensified in Calapan City as Menakor Corporation has erected fencing around a 158-hectare property that includes city hall and several government offices, insisting the action is legally justified to prevent illegal settlement.

According to Menakor’s legal representative, Atty. Olympia M. Calupitan, the company began installing galvanized iron sheets and wooden posts on March 27, 2025 after discovering unauthorized occupants had constructed homes and businesses on the land.

The fencing prompted a brief demonstration by affected residents, though Mayor Malou F. Morillo successfully negotiated temporary access points for those living within the enclosed area.

Officials report no violence or property damage occurred during the operation.

“The property was officially classified as residential, commercial and industrial through Municipal Ordinance No. 21, enacted in April 1981,” Calupitan told reporters, adding that the same ordinance designated the Guinobatan area as “non-agricultural or light industrial.”

Meanwhile, the One Mindoro – Mindoro Movement for Change (MMC) has raised arguments about the project’s impact on the city’s aesthetic value.

Dr. Marius Lopez of MMC notes that fencing such a large open area, particularly one containing natural or culturally important elements like rice fields, affects the city’s landscape.

MMC has outlined several potential community responses, including demands for public consultation and transparency from both Menakor and city officials.

The group cites provisions in the Local Government Code and Environmental Impact Assessment laws requiring public hearings for large developments affecting communities.

The organization is also encouraging residents to lobby the City Council for protective ordinances that would limit fence height, materials and design in open landscapes, and preserve visual access to agricultural and heritage lands.

“We can formally ask the City Planning and Development Office to review Menakor’s fencing plan for compliance with the city’s zoning code and aesthetic policies,” Dr. Lopez said in a Facebook post addressing the issue.

The dispute stems from conflicting interpretations of the 1998 Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL).

Following its enactment, Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOAs) were issued to original tenants under the presumption the land fell under the reform programme’s jurisdiction.

However, the original landowners—Luis, Remegio, and Luz Luna—challenged these certificates, arguing the property’s reclassification excluded it from agrarian reform coverage.

The case navigated through various legal channels, with the Office of the President initially supporting the landowners’ position before being overturned by the Court of Appeals, which ruled the property’s designation as the site for Calapan’s Government Center did not automatically exempt it from agrarian reform laws.

The legal battle concluded in 2013 when the Supreme Court definitively ruled the property exempt from CARL coverage, declaring the ownership certificates “irregularly issued” and not binding on the property owners.

Calupitan confirmed that in December 2023, the Calapan Municipal Trial Court issued a writ of execution ordering 66 occupants to vacate the property and restore possession to Menakor Corporation.

File photo: courtesy of Sangguniang Kabataan ng Barangay Guinobatan