Mayor Lani extends hands of peace to Mayor Binay

Thanks Sec. Roxas for clearing jurisdiction issue over Fort Bonifacio

 After Interior and Local Government Sec. Mar Roxas cleared up the jurisdiction issue on Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City Mayor Lani Cayetano is extending the hands of peace to Makati Mayor Junjun Binay to renew the friendship strained by the Court of Appeals (CA) ruling on the territorial dispute.

“We ask Mayor Binay to renew our friendship and the camaraderie between our cities that have been strained by the territorial dispute over Fort Bonifacio,” Mayor Lani said.

The local chief executive urged Mayor Binay to set aside the differences that this issue has brought them, saying the people of Taguig and Makati are essentially “brothers and sisters.”

“I hope there can be peace and friendship between us again,” Mayor Lani said even as she appealed to the Makati mayor to wait for a final court ruling on the matter avoid resorting to violence in affirming its claims.

She noted that the local government of Taguig has already filed a motion for reconsideration (MR) before the CA, which she pointed out suspends the execution of the decision of the appellate court.

“All of these support our actions to maintain the status quo in Fort Bonifacio,” she maintained, “For now, let us promote peace and order in our respective cities and among our people. Let us avoid actions that will result in possible clashes and danger to our respective police forces and our peace and order personnel.”

Mayor Lani, at the same time, expressed gratitude that the DILG has cleared the jurisdictional issues in Fort Bonifacio by stating that the status quo remains in the disputed area.

DILG Sec. Mar Roxas told media he issued the directive upon the advice of the Philippine National Police (PNP). The DILG exercises administrative control over PNP.

“We hope that no more tension arises from any statement or act from any party regarding the matter as the DILG chief himself delineated all jurisdictional issues,” Mayor Lani said.

She said they should be attending to needs of their respective constituents instead of engaging in a bitter territorial dispute over Fort Bonifacio.

The Taguig Mayor stressed that there is no compelling reason to justify a forceful and immediate execution of the CA ruling which is not final and executory. She said Makati does not really need BGC as of the moment as its budget exceeds the needs of its people.

On the other hand, Taguig will be seriously prejudiced once BGC is taken away from Taguigenos. She said Taguig’s budget and public services will be adversely affected, while businesses and transactions will be put in disarray.

“The earnings we derive from BGC funds our entire education program, including Taguig’s scholarship program that has more than 20,000 scholars to date. This is aside from other programs in health and livelihood,” she added.

Mayor Lani likewise pointed out that Taguig did not take over Makati’s  7 barangays when it won the case in 2011. She said Taguig allowed Makati to exhaust its legal remedies and did not sow confusion nor encouraged instability.

Moving forward, Mayor Lani said she hopes that the DILG’s statement on the issue would suffice to clear all the issues and questions in the minds of the people.

This, she said, will greatly help prevent future tensions between Taguig and Makati just like what happened last Wednesday and the incident in Palar village, where a standoff between Makati and Taguig personnel occurred.

She noted that in the past, Makati personnel and police have on several occasions intruded into Taguig territory themselves.

On Friday morning, Roxas declared that the status quo remains in Fort Bonifacio as he was interviewed over broadcast news networks.

In an interview with ABS-CBN’s Umagang Kay Ganda with Anthony Taberna, Roxas clarified that absent a clear ruling from courts, the status quo will remain. ###