ANOTHER dispute is brewing in what used to be known as Hacienda de San Pedro de Tunasan in Laguna with residents urging San Pedro City Mayor Lourdes Cataquiz to investigate several armed men who claimed to be her men and are harassing residents of the area.
Community resident Levi Lobo Jr. made the appeal after several armed men, who claimed to be Cataquiz’ men, entered the area brandishing their guns and started harassing residents.
“We don’t know the mayor’s interest in the talks over these lands but many are wondering why these men are claiming to be from the office of the mayor,” Lobo said in Filipino.
Lobo said the men repeatedly entered the area and appear to be intent on sowing fear among residents with some of them firing their rifles armed with grenade launchers.
On Jan. 5, Lobo said the men fired their rifles at a group of male residents. On Jan. 9, they again fired their weapons and even fired three grenades to scare residents.
Lobo said residents suspect that the harassment may be connected to the decades-long dispute over what used to be known as the Hacienda de San Pedro de Tunasan, which used to be owned by the Society of Jesus.
Various lawsuits have arisen from the hacienda which was “awarded” to Spanish conquistador Esteban Rodriguez Figueroa, a one-time governor of Mindanao, in the 16th century.
Rodriguez bequeathed the hacienda to the Order of Saint Augustine and later transferred to the Society of Jesus for the establishment of the Colegio de San Jose.
The hacienda was later transferred to the Colegio de San Jose, which is now known as the San Jose Seminary. However, the hacienda was transferred to the Agustinian and Dominican orders after the expulsion of the Society of Jesus from Spanish possessions in the 18th century.
In the following century, ownership of the land shifted from the Catholic Church and the government along with various third parties who also laid claim to portions of the hacienda in partnership with the church or the government.
One of such private parties was Carlos Young, a registered owner under Original Certificate of Title No. 656 and Transfer Certificate of Title No. 166689, who was in partnership with Colegio de San Jose in the 1930s.
Young apparently agreed to donate to a portion of the land to the then Municipality of San Pedro in exchange for a waiver over accumulated property taxes.
However, Young later discovered that the parcel he agreed to donate to the town was being claimed by one Oliver Laperal, who presented land titles that was later found to cover lands in Taytay, Rizal.