Residents of Camella Classic Homes and Multinational Village in Parañaque City have no one else to blame but the real estate company of the "powerful" Villar family for the flooding they are complaining about.

This was according to the owner of a resort that allegedly encroached into the Baloc-Baloc Creek, a small waterway between CCH in Barangay Don Bosco and Multinational Village in Barangay Moonwalk.

On Sunday morning, the residents, under the watchful eyes of police officers, worked together to tear down a structure built near the creek. They also removed stones and other debris from the waterway, the presence of which they blamed on the Wing-An Garden Resort owned by businessman Salwen Lao.

"I am happy to see how people around us, led by various associations, helped each other to remove those large stones blocking the waterway," Sabino Garcia III, administrator for peace and order and public safety of Barangay Moonwalk, told DAILY TRIBUNE.

"Mr. Lao has built this resort, and, as far as I know, it was stopped by the city engineering office because it didn't have a building permit. It is already causing flooding that affects many people either from the village community or informal settlers," Garcia added.

Cory Castro, a former board member of Camella Classic Homes, said the local government of Parañaque has already ordered Mr. Lao to remove the fence along the creek and to fix the reclamation that has been submerging their areas since 2013 during heavy rains.

She said that in 1988, when she acquired a property in Camella, the creek was so huge — more or less 13 meters wide — but now only spans about two meters. She and other residents said the floods came when Lao started to build his resort near the creek in 2011.

Sought for comment by DAILY TRIBUNE, Lao asserted that he legally owns the lot, including the creek. He claimed that the Villars reclaimed the original creek, which is now part of the Camella Classic Homes.

"The creek they said is not the real creek because the real creek has been acquired by former Senate President Manny Villar under his name and made it [into] a road," Lao said in a phone interview.

"They turned my land into a creek (man-made creek) because that (original) creek was made into a road, and then part of the creek was sold as subdivision lots," he added.

In 2017, then-Mayor and now Parañaque City Representative Edwin Olivarez tried fixing the problem, according to Lao.

"He (Olivarez) conducted a survey and signed it officially, so this lot is mine, including the creek," he said. "The bad thing now is that no one wants to take action on this because Villar is very powerful."

Castro said they asked the national government and the local government unit to widen the creek to speed up the water flow and increase its water-carrying capacity.

She added that the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority has recommended the removal of fencing in the creek.

According to Castro, the flood affected hundreds of families from Camella Classic Homes and neighboring villages.

"Even if he (Lao) has a title, he can't cover the waterways. He's destroying people's lives — the students, workers, and households," she said. "I hope our government would not allow him to cover that creek."

DAILY Tribune was yet to receive at press time reactions from the Villars on the issue.

With Jing Villamente