ILIGAN CITY (18 Sept 2018) - Mayor Celso Gomera Regencia announced the reimplementation of curfew hours for young people after it was lifted last week so that residents could more freely celebrate the city fiesta. The curfew hours which was effected after the proclamation of Martial Law brought about by the crisis in Marawi City last year was temporarily suspended in celebration of the month-long 2018 Diyandi Festival and the city fiesta. The month-long Diyandi Festival is in celebration of the feast of Patron Saint Michael Archangel started September 1 to October 7.
"There is a need to relax the implementation of the curfew hours to give way to the celebration," said Regencia last Monday in a bid to promote the tourism in Iligan City during its weeklong festivities. The curfew hours was lifted starting September 10 and was supposed to be in effect until October 7. However, Regencia reimplemented the curfew hours covering citizens aged 18 years old and below from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. effective September 17 following rumbles involving youth groups in different parts of the city. "We will not wait until lives will be wasted," he said. Exceptions will cover minors with their parents in tow and students traveling home from school provided they have proper IDs. [Bonita Ermac, Manila Bulletin]
ILIGAN CITY - As the Barangay election is fast approaching, Mayor Celso Gomera Regencia calls Iliganons to vote for the right person for the right offices.
ILIGAN CITY, Philippines (2 April 2018) - Some 1,300 houses involving the same number of families, mostly those who fled during the Marawi siege will be evicted, for buying a house funded by the government for typhoon Sendong victims.
ILIGAN CITY - City Hall would start padlocking houses at a resettlement site for survivors of the 2011 storm "Sendong" in Barangay Santa Elena that is being used by other people.
ILIGAN City (22 Mar 2018) - The local government here warned Typhoon 'Sendong' beneficiaries of a government relocation project who reportedly sold their units that the full force of the law will be used and their houses confiscated from them if reports are proven true.
ILIGAN City (2 Dec 2017) - The Iligan City government and a liquidator acting on behalf of creditors of what was formerly the National Steel Corp. (NSC) are fighting for possession of the company after the former insisted that it acquired the firm's assets after it failed to pay more than PhP 4-billion in real property taxes, which the latter disputes. According to Iligan City Administrator Dexter Sumaoy, liquidator Danilo L. Concepcion's move to take back NSC was based on the October 7, 2011, decision of Branch 57 of the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) in a civil case that favored the company. In that case, Concepcion argued that the NSC paid its taxes on real properties - which included land, building, equipment and support facilities - from the fourth quarter of 1999 to October 15, 2004. Iligan Mayor Celso Regencia filed an appeal to overturn the Makati RTC's decision with the Court of Appeals (CA), and later with the Supreme Court (SC), which dismissed it on June 21, 2016. The accumulated taxes on the NSC properties reached P4.698 billion by October 2016. These consisted of the basic tax (38.99 percent), special education fund (44.44 percent) and share of the villages (15.44 percent). The Iligan city council held an auction of the NSC's assets on October 19 that year in compliance with the Local Government Code. City Treasurer Louela Maybituin bought all the assets on the city government's behalf after no one bid for them and declared them forfeited in accordance with Section 263 of the Local Government Code. The accumulated taxes on the properties reached about P5.843 billion in 2017. Maybituin declared the assets free from any hindrance or third-party claim after the NSC failed to redeem them and no injunctive order was issued. The city government acquired the properties on October 19 this year with the approval of the mayor and the city council. The NSC was first established as state-owned National Shipyards and Steel Corp. (NASSCO) in 1951. Jacinto and Sons took over NASSCO in 1962 and renamed it as Iligan Integrated Steel Mills (IISM). In 1974, the National Development Corp. (NDC) reorganized the IISM as NSC, which was later sold to Wing Tiek/Westmont in 1994. Renong/Hottick Investments Ltd. took control of the company from 1996 to 1999, when the creditors assigned a liquidator to it. NSC became known as Global Steel Philippines from December 2004 to August 2005. [Ted Khan Juanite, The Manila Times]
ILIGAN City (28 Feb 2017) - Mayor Celso Gomera Regencia has summoned all beneficiaries of Gawad Kalinga (GK) houses in Bayanihan Village, Barangay Santa Elena on Tuesday morning to investigate why some 'Sendong' survivors sold the units that were awarded to them. According to Housing and Resettlement Office head Rey Roque, over 300 units were sold by beneficiaries to non-Sendong survivors. Buyers were mostly locals of Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur. The memorandum of agreement signed by the beneficiaries before they occupied the units states that they are not allowed to sell or let non-beneficiaries occupy the units.
Some beneficiaries reasoned they sold their units because some parts of the village do not have power and water service. The local government is eyeing the possible filing of charges against beneficiaries who sold their units but also vowed to go after officials and department heads who were amiss in their duty to provide the services promised.
A number of 'Sendong' survivors in Iligan still have not been relocated, five years after the tragedy. [Roxanne Arevalo, ABS-CBN News]
