9 hurt in Taguig City demolition

Nine persons were injured, four of them soldiers, in a standoff over a demolition job that lasted six hours near the East Service Road in Taguig City Wednesday. The tension started to subside before noon when the Army allowed some 500 families in the area to stay at the lot near Fort Bonifacio for at least one more week. Not even an order from Taguig Mayor Sigfrido Tinga at 7 a.m., or the intervention by Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, could stop the standoff highlighted by a rock-throwing incident. “I cannot allow the demolition to go on because the demolition team did not have a clearance from the Presidential Commission on the Urban Poor," Tinga said over dzBB radio. Tinga said he had to send a team to the site to explain to the police, Army and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) team that a demolition cannot go on without a PCUP clearance. The residents were protesting the impending arrival of an MMDA team that was to demolish their shanties at the East Service Road. Starting shortly before 6 a.m., tension filled the East Service Road with residents forming a human chain and placing rocks at the middle of the road. On the other side were the Army, police and MMDA team, complete with a complement from the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team. The early-morning barricade snarled traffic along C-5 Road and a part of the Southern Luzon Expressway near Gate 3 of Fort Bonifacio. A police team led by Supt. Alfred Corpuz of the Taguig City police had tried to talk with residents but could not immediately convince them to remove their barricades. The Philippine Army sought the demolition of the lot where some 500 families now call their home, claiming it is part of the Libingan ng Mga Bayani. Police said residents beat up at least one truck driver, Romeo Maro, 42, of Novaliches, when he tried to ram through the barricade. Maro tried to prevent further violence by turning over his truck's keys to the residents but he was still beaten up just the same. -GMANews.TV