Confusion Over Land in Bella Vista!
In Bella Vista Village in the Toledo East constituency, there is serious confusion over who has entitlement to parcels of land in the village. Some of the plots of land have been under development and occupied for years. Some have documents suggesting they have been accommodated to go ahead and take up occupancy. But, now that system has seemingly created chaos and frustration among the villagers. News Five’s Marion Ali and Rick Romero were in Bella Vista on Sunday where there was an all-out war of words over parcels of land some villagers thought they had papers for, only to discover other people do too.
Giovanni Turcios
Giovanni Turcios
“My sister, Wendy Turcios got four – she applied from 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and until now she got leases for four lots and her family, (pointing at Oneida Hernandez) her sisters are applying for that. You think that’s right?”
Oneida Hernandez
Oneida Hernandez
“No, that is not true. That is not true! You have any evidence of that? Because I can take you to court! Escuchando que el dijiste?”
Marion Ali, Reporting
The heated exchange that permeated through Bella Vista on Sunday signaled frustration over a process of acquiring land villagers have been subscribing to for years. It is one that has now begun to show its inefficiencies. The twenty or so villagers who turned out to meet our cameras represented only a fraction of the total number of persons who have reportedly occupied parcels of land over the years, only to discover that they are not the only ones who have entitlement to those plots.
Marion Ali
“You have this for how long?”
Francisco Choc
Francisco Choc, Bella Vista resident
“For eight years now.”
Marion Ali
“And you’ve built on it?”
Francisco Choc
“Yes, I have cement floor on it, I have three truckloads of sand and gravel, and I have a well on it, I have coconut trees on it.”
Marion Ali
“Have you applied to buy it?”
Francisco Choc
“Yes, yes, yes. I di pay fi this already. I have two hundred (dollars) fi pay right now and deh tell mi my lease expired. But when I gone check at the office dehn tell me yoh lease expired but you still own this land.”
Marion Ali
“Who told you that?”
Francisco Choc
“The Lands Department in Punta Gorda.”
Gereen Bonilla
Gereen Bonilla, Bella Vista resident
“My sister-in-law has a house right by the gas station and when she started to construct because they never had the line – it’s inside another lot.
So they asked for a family member to get that land so I applied for it.
They have a big hole in the middle of the lot so that takes up the whole land for me. I can’t do any construction or anything. And then once they fence it, they will take it over.”
Daisy Bonilla
Daisy Bonilla, Bella Vista resident
“I have a house there which I build like twelve years ago, I started to build it and then when the P.U.P. took over they went and did another survey. And then they said the land there belong to this family so the road cannot be built because it’s for this family.”
Marion Ali
“Over the twelve years that you have been occupying the land have you tried to get title for the land?”
Daisy Bonilla
“Yes, I did. Many times I went to the Lands Department in Punta Gorda. When I went there the person there showed me the map and they told me that that land doesn’t even exist, not even this family (land).”
The allegation is that it is one family who is claiming most of the land. Cesar Ortiz said he is also caught in the confusion with another resident, who happens to be a village councillor. But Ruth Turcios says she is not using her authority to side-step anyone and is relying on the documents she also holds to the same piece of land.
Cesar Ortiz
Cesar Ortiz, Bella Vista resident
“I occupy this land from 2017. In 2017 I went to Mr. Salvador Ack, who was the chairperson of the lands committee in Bella Vista. And he gimme the receipts when I get this from another person when I buy the right of the land. Now in January, 2022 I noticed that there was another person who wants to occupy this piece of land. I spoke with her and she said she has documents. When she showed me the documents, she showed me the declaration form and a (letter of) permission to survey the land too, the same things I have.”
Marion Ali
“Do you have title to this piece of land that this man is saying you’re trying to get him off of?”
Ruth Turcios
Ruth Turcios, Bella Vista resident
“Ok, Miss this is in dispute that the chairlady says both of us have to stop. The government or the Ministry has to decide who have the right to the land because both of us have the same paper, which is a receipt. The same paper weh he have, I have as well.”
Marion Ali
“You haven’t approached him to say “you have to get off my piece of land?”
Ruth Turcios
“No, never.”
Salvador Ack is Bella Vista’s former Village Council Lots Committee Chairman. He explained that they were doing their best with limited resources.
Salvador Ack
Salvador Ack, Former Bella Vista Village Council Lots Committee Chairman
“In our term we surveyed it and we had like two sections left to register before the actual surveyor, the deceased Mr. Guillermo Valdez. He was in the process of authenticating the plan since there were no actual surveyor for government, all surveyors are private so to whoever lots are being recommended they need to finance their own survey costs. What we did at that time was lobbied with government to take over the plan and take it over as a plan because we couldn’t do any better.”
But now the problem has gotten so acute that it will take more than a village leader to solve the problem.
Oneida Hernandez, Chairlady, Bella Vista Village
“We are having a dispute over land in Bella Vista along with house lots. There is a group of people that is trying to get the lands from these people, I would say in a very aggressive way. As well, people have been complaining that they have been working this land for more than ten years; others say for five years, other people claim they have theirs from 2011. The Hon Cordel Hyde had a land clinic on the 24th of June, last year. What happened is that when he came here a lot of people only had receipt of surveys so those people were granted purchase price in order for them to own the land. There is a little problem with Lands[Department] whereby you nuh need a recommendation from an area representative, from any chairperson of the community or the village or from the chairperson of lands and lots committee in the area. That gives a lot of trouble in the sense that when you go and apply, you don’t know whose land that is. So sometimes you get to have three owners to the land and maybe the fastest person can go and apply (for) it.”
Salvador Ack
“We had on the highway, forty-nine house lots. We heard they have been all taken away.”
The former U.D.P. village official and the current PUP one have one wish in common in order that the tension that exists in their community can be quelled.
Salvador Ack
“I would wish that the chairlady – I have good communications with her – and even the Minister of Lands, the Prime Minister and Minister Espat as well – I don’t see no big reason to be fighting over a piece of land. I think that, and I would recommend to them to look into it seriously. Listen to the cries of these people. It is a very serious situation. I think there is a solution to it.”
Oneida Hernandez
“I am asking the Honourable Cordel Hyde to please work with your area reps. Tell them to recommend the people that have that lot.”
Marion Ali reporting for News Five.
