A group of houses inside Urdaneta Village, Makati, reportedly owned by the Social Security System is drawing the ire of its neighbors.
The Urdaneta Village Association, Inc. wrote a letter dated Jan. 25, to SSS Asset Management department head Greg Sopoco, to call its attention to the “violation of UVA’s Deed of Restrictions and UVA Construction Rules and Regulations” and “to Cease and Desist from Constructing the CHB Wall, Demolition/Removal thereof, and From Using the Lot for Purposes Other than Residential.”
One house is said to be leased by a former senator. What has raised the hackles of residents of the posh village is the fact that the structure has supposedly become a “storage of old cars, and housing of drivers, bodyguards and female employees with no one to supervise them,” according to a concerned neighbor.
“The staff fight all day long, smoke and drink and it’s driving all of us crazy! On top of all this, they keep filthy dogs and one time I even heard a rooster,” the resident says.
Using the property as a staff house violates village association rules, residents say, which mandates that lots in the village be limited to one single family and for residential purposes only. The former senator herself does not live in the premises, but uses the lot to store “about a dozen old cars of her father that she doesn’t want to part with,” according to the irate neighbor.
The cease-and-desist letter from June Vilvestre, Urdaneta Village manager, pointed out that as many as 31 people were using the house. Another alleged anomaly: The house was constructed with no set backs from adjoining lot boundaries—“a blatant violation,” said the village association.
The complaints stated in the letter also extend to a number of other SSS properties, among them Casa Real Townhouse which has six occupied units out of 12 units, but according to the association is likewise in violation of village standards; and another property that is “vacant and unkempt.”
The complaints have been mounting for a year, but SSS has not addressed them, according to residents. Neighbors have asked that the disruptive setup be terminated and the violative structures demolished. Otherwise, the village association says it has “no recourse but to institute the appropriate legal action to protect our interest.”