Smooth execution of SC ruling eyed on Taguig and Makati land dispute

By Rey E. Requejo

FORMER Makati City Vice Mayor

Ernesto Mercado has urged both the Taguig City and Makati City governments to work for a smooth transition and implementation of a Supreme Court (SC) decision mandating that the 729-hectare Fort Bonifacio Military Reservation where the Bonifacio Global City is located and several barangays in Makati City are under the jurisdiction of Taguig City.

Mercado made the appeal after SC spokesman Brian Keith Hosaka announced that the High Tribunal has dismissed the omnibus petition of the Makati government requesting that the land dispute case be appealed before the SC en banc for to lack of merit.

Herolden Alonto was dismissed for insufficiency of evidence. According to the resolution, the prosecutors considered the testimonies of witnesses and CCTV footage from different barangays that showed the forcible abduction. The victims’ cell phone conversations with their kin during the time they were abducted, the testimony of a witness who identified the suspects, CCTV footage showing a black and a gray van followed by a silver Toyota Wigo that left the Manila Arena, the short lapse of time as shown in the CCTV footage, and the victims’ disappearance since the abduction