Guv orders removal of barricade in resort

GOV. Erico Aumentado ordered yesterday the removal of a barricade on a barangay road near the newly built resort identified as Eskaya Resort and Spa. The order to remove the obstacle was addressed to Richard Lim, chief executive officer of the resort. The order was served the other day. A copy of the order, which was signed by lawyer Handel Lagunay, provincial legal officer and approved by Gov. Aumentado was e-mailed to Lim yesterday afternoon. Lim, through a telephone call to the Post denied the allegations of closing any barangay road. He however faxed a land title proving that the alleged “barangay road” is in fact an tract of land within his private property which people have used to as their access for a long time.

Moreover, Lim, through company lawyer Alexander Lim said that when the property was acquired from a bank, people have been used to using a portion of the lot as their access. Now, with the construction going on, the resort owners allege they did not close the access but only restrained it for four wheel vehicles, not foot traffic, their legal counsel said. Even then, Capitol authorities swooped down to look into the “complaints” which Eskaya management said could be only an instigation of the few.

The governor's order came after an ocular inspection made by Lagunay and Provincial Engineer Edwin Vallejos. Upon inspection, the governor's men found out the resort management installed a barricade which prevented the passage of vehicles through a barangay road at Tawala in Panglao. No less than Mayor Doloriech Dumaluan has confirmed to Gov. Aumentado that indeed there is an existing barangay road along the resort's beachfront property and that the free passage had been hindered by the installation of the questioned barricade.

According to Lagunay, a barangay road is for public use and only the government, not private persons, has the authority to regulate its use. At the same time, Lagunay and Vallejos also discovered that it was not hard to conclude that the barangay road is no longer visible after it was covered with sand when the resort management improved the beachfront property. The two also determined after measurements were taken that the barricade and the stretch of stone riprap the resort owner introduced are located within the 20-meter salvage or easement for public use.

l