CANAMAN, Camarines Sur—Alleged claimants of a commercial complex here in Barangay Baras, the Nordia Complex owned by the heirs of ex-Senator Edmundo Cea, one of the most prominent politicians in Camarines Sur from the 70s to the 80s, were ejected on Friday last week from the property they occupied since Holy Wednesday, ending a dramatic 16-day standoff.

Photo Caption: The alleged claimants who forcibly occupied the Nordia Complex for 16 days were rounded up like felons trespassing a private property. They were ejected from the place after interrogation and mug shot photo documentation on April 28.

Edmundo Cea Jr., and mother Leonila Cristy Cortez led a gang to occupy the premises of the Nordia Complex starting Holy Wednesday until they were rounded up by a platoon of security guards in the early morning of April 28.


        Early morning on April 28, a private security agency conducted an operation to round up and eject the alleged claimants out of the complex that housed the local radio stations DZGE-AM and DWEB-FM, Nordia Tennis Club, hotel and restaurant, apartments and the Nordia Sports Complex.

Unexpected move
        Surprised by the unexpected move of the late ex-senator’s only legitimate daughter, Norma Cea-Papas, the occupants numbering 15 individuals did not put up resistance when security guards of Cea-Papas rounded them up like felons trespassing a private property.

        Led by a certain Leonila Cristy Cortez of Doña Clara Village, Naga City, the occupants on April 12 aboard three vehicles and several motorcycles stormed the Nordia Complex, occupied the lobby of the local radio station on the first day, transferred to the tennis court the following day and then later, controlled the administrative building of the Filipinas Broadcasting Network (FBN).

        The 15 occupants, that included Cortez, were traced to be residents of Naga City and the towns of Baao and Milaor.

Cristy Cortez made her last stand in one of the rooms at the administrative building of the Filipinas Broadcasting Network before she was physically ejected and subdued after a brief resistance.

        Within a 15-day period of occupying the Nordia Complex, Cortez’s group camped out at the Nordia Complex’s tennis court, ransacked the hotel, forcibly opened the FBN’s administrative building, pruned the trees and cleared and fenced the surroundings of a portion inside the complex.

Occupancy, intrusion
        From April 12 to 27, Cortez group’s continued intrusion and occupancy of the Nordia Complex premises sparked several incidents and confrontations between Cea-Papas and Cortez that required police assistance.

        On April 22, three policemen from the Canaman police force pacified a brewing violent confrontation between Cea-Papas and Cortez when the latter claimed she had been physically harmed by the former, which the accused denied in front of the authorities who responded.

        “My lawyers have emphasized to me not to use physical contact because it would not be good,” she said.

        Cortez asserted that she now owned the property following a court declaration that her son, Edmundo Cea Jr., now almost 18 years old, alleged illegitimate son of the late ex-senator, is one of the heirs and the latter has been appointed his guardian. Cea Jr. turns 18 on May 6, 2006.

        On April 22, Cortez, using a megaphone, stirred the residents of the Nordia Complex as she demanded from them contracts of occupancy at the same time that she she has assumed as alleged administrator of the complex.

Backers
        “My backers are retired colonel and police officers and I own this place. Even Diana Cea-Gozum (the adopted half-sister of Cea-Papas who runs the FBN and the court-assigned administrator of Cea property) is my employee,” Cortez said in one of her angry outbursts on April 26.

        She also claimed that she was not a “hostess” and further claimed the late ex-senator had kidnapped her when she was just 17 years old.

        In a photocopied document submitted in court, it showed that Cea has apparently admitted fathering Cortez in an “Affidavit of Admission of Paternity” dated Jan. 23, 1992.

        The late ex-senator died on Dec. 30, 1993.

        In February 1994, Cortez filed in court Cea Jr.’s claims on all the properties of Cea that triggered a bitter legal battle between Cea-Papas, Cea-Gozum and Cea Jr.

Property possession
        But the legal battle between Cortez and her son against Cea-Papas detoured to property possession when the latter, together with several supporters, forcibly occupied the tennis court and the FBN’s administrative building until they were ejected on April 28 by a platoon of security guards Cea-Papas hired.

        Overpowered, Cea-Papas’ security guards encountered only brief resistance from Cortez who was physically plucked out from a room inside the FBN’s administrative building that the former occupied for about a week.

        Subdued, the 15 occupants of the Nordia Complex that included a retired police officer and ex-Army men, were lined up for mug shots and interrogation which Cea-Papas ordered.

        Cea-Papas informed them that they have violated several laws in which they would also be criminally liable of their transgressions. The rounded-up occupants were allowed to leave the Nordia Complex after five hours of individual interrogation.

Plot
        With Cortez’ documents, records and private communications regarding the subject of property claims now in the hands of Cea-Papas after the April 28 incident, details of a plot to take over Nordia Complex were uncovered.

        Aside from Cortez, three names cropped up in private documents and personnel communications as financiers of the plot to take over the Nordia Complex.

        Of the three names that surfaced in the documents, two were lawyers (one from Legazpi City the other one from Southern Tagalog) and one businesswoman from Naga City.

        A bankbook with a beginning balance of P100,000 has been found in a confiscated bag which Cea-Papas photocopied upon confiscation of Cortez’s personal belongings.

        The move, according to the plot, started with the assertion of possession and ownership through actual occupancy of the complex. Upon securing approval to operate the cockpit, Cortez’s group will take over the operation of the Nordia Sports Complex to be followed by the operations of the bowling lanes and the tennis court.

        Several of the names listed to handle the operation of the Nordia Complex under Cortez’ new administration were among those who stayed and occupied the premises of the contested property for 16 days.