QC Metropolitan Trial Court finds 38 Kadamay members guilty of other forms of trespass for occupying a property in Tandang Sora in 2017. They are sentenced to pay a fine of P200 each. Almost 4 years of trial, the State stands to earn P7,600 from the urban poor. @rapplerdotcom 
There were supposed to be 41 respondents, but 3 have died since. In the decision, Judge Don Ace Mariano Alagar said: "The court understands that accused were driven by self-preservation under the circumstances and will thus impose the penalty of fine instead of imprisonment."
According to court's record, urban poor residents lived on property for 3 decades until QC local govt demolished their houses in July 2016 because they were fire hazards. Thet lived on the street for 9 months, record says, and were forced to enter fenced property in April 2017.
After living on the streets for 9 months, they were forced to enter the fenced property where their houses used to stand because there was going to be an MMDA clearing operations.
Kadamay members invoked state of necessity, which, under Revised Penal Code, would be a justifying circumstance. The MMDA clearing ops created a state of necessity to occupy the property, Kadamay said. Court disagreed saying clearing op was legal, expected, and anticipated.
RA 10951 actually imposes a maximum P40,000 fine on other forms of trespass, but this was signed into law only in July 2017, or 3 months after the incident. Judge applied the old RPC fine of not exceeding P200.
This was Epifana Rufa in Camp Karingal in 2017, when she was arrested. She was 83 years old at the time.
This was them in 2017 in Camp Karingal.
In 2017, there were 8 senior citizens arrested. Two of them – Tirso Mangubat and Mark Anthony Roadilla – have died since.
Full story: rappler.com/nation/quezon-…
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