12/08/2022
AN OPEN LETTER FROM TIYANG TENTAY
(Sixta Suzara Villarin Cootauco, Age 92)
August 12, 2022
Dear Fellow Daetenos and Friends,
Our family has UNJUSTLY suffered public humiliation, indignation, and intimidation despite being the benefactor to our community for over eight decades! Imbes na pasalamatan ay kami pa a garo para api! Sadly, such is the present case of our family, the heirs of my mother, the late Matilde Suzara Villarin, who in 1939, donated a parcel of land in Daet, Camarines Norte, which is currently the subject of a controversial land dispute.
In the court of public opinion, it is easy for one to be swayed away from the truth by lies and misinformation without knowing its history. So, I am writing this letter to set the record straight
and obtain justice for my family before my dying days. I also vowed to my now deceased sister, Lina (Leny Lomeda), that I will do everything in my power to take back the land that is rightfully and legally ours.
I may be old, but my mind is clear. My memory is good! I was nine years old at that time. My mother was working hard raising three young children as a widow and yet, she saw a need in the community. In 1939, she advocated for a centralized public slaughterhouse in Daet because she observed that animals were regularly butchered along the river bank. Such practice polluted the water with the animals’ blood. This is the same water that housewives and labanderas use to wash clothes, since those days, sufficient water system was not yet readily available to households.
On February 8, 1939, my mother executed a Deed of Donation for a parcel of our land in Salcedo Street (now Vicente Basit that measured 1,242 sqm) to the town of Daet with the strict and clear stipulation that the land be used only for the sole purpose of being a public slaughterhouse (bunoan). That was the case for 60 years until the bunoan closed and moved to Calasgasan. After the bunoan left, Barangay 8 moved in and started building their barangay hall in that piece of land without any permission from us, my mother’s heirs. Therefore, the Deed of Donation has been breached!
My sister, Lina, started a long legal battle in 2002 to have the land returned to us, since by closing the bunoan and converting the land into the Barangay 8 Hall, it is clear that the Deed of Donation is now void.
The Regional Trial Court of Daet agreed and issued a Writ of Ex*****on on August 13, 2020, which called for the removal of the Barangay 8 hall and the surrender of the property to the heirs of my mother. It also issued a Certificate of Finality on September 2021.
The law is clear: the heirs of the late Matilde Suzara Villarin are the rightful and legal owners of that parcel of land. Why is Kagawad Edwin Sayson (signatory to all documents) preventing us from taking back what is rightfully and legally ours? Instead of gratitude for using that parcel of land as a Barangay Hall with NO renumeration, they are now turning the table on us and
claiming the land as theirs! Instead of upholding my mother’s benevolent contribution to Daet, her heirs are being accused as aggressors for what opponents claim as disrupting the services to
the people of Barangay 8. On May 10, 2022, the barangay hall was moved to Purok 9, but some kagawads did not find the new place to their liking. It was too small. They wanted bigger offices to house their egos!
My mother also donated a piece of land where Our Lady of Penafrancia Chapel in Salcedo St. stands and can be credited for building the chapel. This is where the Santo la Muerte (image of
kamatayan holding a scythe and an hourglass) resides. All these years, our family has been quiet and never advertise these land donations, but since feeling the injustice in the present
situation, we have to speak up.
For the past 83 years, the local government have used our land rent-free. It is about time to do what is just and right.
I am also wondering, when the heirs moved to claim the land which they won free and clear, that was the time Kagawad Edwin Sayson filed for Eminent Domain (the case is pending and we have to fight in court all over again)! It took 18 years for the court to return the land back to us, but Barangay 8 was given a Writ of Possession in a matter of weeks! Is this fair?
Matanda na ako. I want to see what was wrong be corrected while I am still alive. I still see the goodness in people. I know that somebody will do the right thing and that JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL.
Should I die like my sister, Lina, who passed on without seeing the fruit of her long legal battle, I shall tell my family to do the same. The fight will go on!
Please pakibalik man ang bako saindo! Sabi ngani ning pang sampulong sugo ning Diyos: Dae pag interesan ang bako saindo.
Gabos na taga Daet pinagdadasal ko barabanggi, lalo na a mga taga Salcedo,
Tentay (Sixta Suzara Villarin Cootauco)
