Catapang ready to face suit

AFP Chief-of-Staff Gregorio Pio Catapang at the Senate hearing on the Mamasapano clash (Photo courtesy of Sen. Grace Poe’s Facebook page)

MANILA — Armed Forces chief Gen. Gregorio Catapang Jr. is ready to face a class suit for forcible entry filed by about 200 farmers against him.

Catapang allegedly evicted the farmers from a 200-hectare land in a military reservation in Nueva Ecija two years ago.

Armed Forces public affairs chief Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc yesterday said that the AFP chief is ready to fight for the soldiers who will benefit from the said land.

“General Catapang is ready to sacrifice his retirement benefits just to fight for the AFP and the soldiers who will benefit from the off-base housing facilities to be put up on the said land,” he said.

Also facing the same civil suit are Lieutenant Colonels Benito Doniego Jr. and Alfredo Patarata.

Both officials were ordered by Catapang to enter the said lands and inform the farmers that they will be evicted from the land.

The petitioners already filed the case at the Municipal Trial Court in 2013 and the court ruled in favor of them.