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Friday, March 29, 2024

Mindoro tears down beach stalls for tourist park 

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SAN JOSE, Occidental Mindoro—The local government has ordered the demolition of 83 business stalls located on a major beach front here to give way to the construction of a park that will cater to the needs of tourists coming to this town, the island’s major trade hub.

The 83 small business stalls, operated by the Aroma Beach Cluster Occupants Association, are in coastal Brgy. San Roque, the venue of the second landing of General Douglas MacArthur with his allied forces on Dec. 15, 1944.

The Aroma Beach Walk serves as a favorite hang-out of townsfolk and visitors here as the venue of their “nightlife entertainment.” Resto bars, restaurants, videoke houses and other “watering holes” abound in the area. It has a clear view of the Mindoro Strait, a part of the West Philippine Sea.

In implementing the executive order of San Jose Mayor Romulo M. Festin, Municipal Administrator Noel K. Vitug cited alleged violations committed by the 83 stallholder operators as their “continuous refusal and deliberate defiance to comply with Municipal Ordinance 672 to implement removal of all illegal structures [no building and fencing permits].”

The demolition of the stalls is expected to be completed before April 29, the birthday of Rep. Josephine Ramirez-Sato, because it “will be presented as a birthday gift to her,” former Brgy. Chairman Ruben T. Insigne, Abcoa president, said, quoting Vitug.

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Vitug, an architect and a former Philippine Army officer, said the ABCOA headed by Insigne has not complied with the removal of “all extensions, store structures, fences, nipa huts, and other obstructions” at the municipal beach park and shorelines.

The ABCOA, through Insigne, belied the allegations of Administrator Vitug, saying since they started their operations in 2002, their members have been religiously complying with the provisions of Ordinance 672, including payments of all kinds of permits, such as business, sanitary, and fencing, among others.

“In 2015, however, the municipal government stopped accepting payments from us giving us no reasons why,” Insigne said.

Insigne and his group also hit Vitug’s “discriminatory acts” for being selective in implementing the local government’s demolition order. 

“Administrator Vitug did not touch nor tear down his 400-square meter fenced property, along with the property of his four friends, if he is really sincere and honest in performing his official acts,” he said.

Insigne and other ABCOA officials – namely Rolly Javier, a former bank manager, and retired police Colonel Feliciano Aprado — also recalled that Vitug bragged in the wake of the demolition on Friday, April 21, that the “demolition of all 83 stalls must be finished before April 29 as it’s our birthday gift to Congresswoman Nene,” the nickname of Occidental Mindoro Rep. Ramirez-Sato.

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