A member of the Valenzuela City Council took the cudgels for members of an urban poor organization who are now facing danger of eviction from homelots that they reportedly bought from a city landowner.

Councilor Alvin Feliciano, the city's Liga ng mga Barangay president, said the Tandang Manang Homeowners Association, Inc. (TMHAI) bought their lots for P3,000 per square meter three years ago in Barangay Parada while documents are being readied to place the land under the government’s Community Mortgage Program (CMP).

Feliciano, however, said that a problem arose after a group of legitimate residents in the area filed a complaint of narrow right of way before the barangay chairman.

Throwing his full support to the urban poor group, Feliciano said the residents have a right under the law to retain the purchased homelots.

A document dated August 29, 2006 showed that the landowner agreed to accept payments from the group on an installment basis for their first few months of stay as papers are being readied to have the land placed under the government’s CMP.

The document also indicated that TMHAI members would be allowed to measure, repair and clean the lots on which their houses stand with P3,000 as price per square meter.

Although the dispute has been resolved by the Barangay Parada chairman, the complaining residents brought the issue to the city council prompting Feliciano to make his stand for the urban poor group.