MANILA, Philippines – A senior administration lawmaker filed a bill which seeks to impose harsher penalties on government officials found to have been “coddling” professional squatters or leaders of squatting syndicates.
In filing the bill, Congressman Amado Bagatsing of the city of Manila cited the urgent need to amend the law, known as the Urban Housing Development Act of 1992, which has become outmoded due to loopholes.
In turn, professional squatters or syndicates and their coddlers in government have used these loopholes to defeat the purpose of the law, said Bagatsing.
To remedy the situation, the three-term congressman proposed to increase the prison term for convicted professional squatters or members of squatting syndicates from six years to 10 years and to increase the fine from the equivalent of $1,250 to $2,000.
For their coddlers in government, Bagatsing recommended a penalty of 12 years imprisonment and a fine ranging from $2,000 to $10,000.
He noted a new breed of squatters no longer stay in shanties and in squalid conditions but now live in luxury in permanent concrete structures.
“These squatters are protected by syndicates and are not the kind of squatters that the law tries to protect,” Bagatsing emphasized. “In many cases, the poor ones are victimized by these syndicates by selling their rights to land not their own.”
In other instances, he continued, these syndicates resort to “land for free” schemes in order to attract people to invade especially lands which are already titled but which have been left vacant by their owners.
Bagatsing recounted the experiences he had encountered while serving as head of a national campaign against professional squatters and squatting syndicates
In one instance, he said his team arrested the suspected leader of a big syndicate only to discover that he had been released the following day after posting bail.
In another instance, Bagatsing revealed that a suspected leader of another syndicate used all his connections in government to escape the filing of appropriate charges against him in court.
According to Bagatsing, many officials coddling squatters have been on the take through a monthly payola from the syndicates.
These same officials also encourage professional squatters to enter their localities in exchange for their votes during election time, he pointed out.
For their part, squatting syndicates create associations or organizations to collect monthly membership fees to allow squatters to stay on a land whose title has been declared void by the court, Bagatsing said.
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