In a press conference at the Iloilo Golf and Country Club in Sta. Barbara, Iloilo, Former Senate president Franklin Drilon said Villar’s company, Crown Communities Iloilo, bought 12.7 hectares in Jibao-an, Pavia, Iloilo from farmer beneficiaries and converted this first-class irrigated rice land into a residential enclave, Savannah Subdivision.
Drilon said Villar had obtained the go-signal from the Department of Agrarian Reform to convert the agriculture land into a residential area only in 2007, or seven years after the construction of the subdivision started in 2000.
Villar, who was in Tanza, Cavite for a campaign rally Friday shrugged off the latest allegations hurled against him by LP, saying the lands were owned by publicly listed companies which has open books that his critics could check for themselves.
“I don’t know what they are accusing me of again. That’s a lie. As far as I know, there’s a process that is according to law and that is an open transaction. These are public companies. I am surprised by what they are saying. This is part of their demolition job against me. These are public companies. This is open. Anybody can look at this,” said Villar in Filipino following a noontime campaign rally of the NP slate in Cavite.
“The documents here do not lie. Under the law, it is illegal to convert first-class irrigated agricultural land into a subdivision but that’s exactly what Manny Villar did in the Savannah Subdivision development. This is a crime,” Drilon said as he presented tax declarations and other documents obtained from the provincial government. (The son of Iloilo Governor Neil Tupas is running for a seat in May under LP.)
Drilon said Villar used P4 million of his pork barrel funds to build a 585-meter national road that led right into the entrance of Savannah. “This is the only public works project of Villar in the province,” said Drilon at the Iloilo press conference.
He said that Villar, not content with the 12-hectare Savannah property, bought the adjoining rice lands in the area and amassed a total of 250 hectares of land to expand his residential community.
He said the farmers had no choice but to sell their property because their irrigation supply had been cut off with Villar’s conversion of the Savannah property which was the primary source of water in the area.
“Villar destroyed the irrigation canals. They back-filled the canal so they can be classified as non-serviceable,” said Drilon who noted that Villar’s Pavia property value has shot up to P3,500 per square meter from less than P150 per square meter.
“This is what we call C-5 and a half. Regardless if it is only half a kilometer, it shows the lack of decency on the part of the developer, Senator Villar, who simply set aside all interest of the CARP beneficiaries to be able to pursue his business interests. The C-5 controversy is simply a tip [of] the iceberg. It is a pattern we now see. We are aware of other subdivisions all over the country where similar practice was followed,” said Drilon.
With a report from Nikko Dizon, Philippine Daily Inquirer
