- Supreme Court settles decades-old land dispute in Matina Crossing
A NEARLY 20-year legal battle over the Arroyo Compound in Barangay Matina Crossing reached its final chapter on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026, as authorities enforced a Supreme Court-mandated demolition of approximately 500 houses.
Despite the scale of the displacement, the Davao City Police Office (DCPO) reported that the operation remained peaceful.
DCPO acting chief Col. Mannan Muarip confirmed that while some residents have lived in the area since 1980, they voluntarily vacated after the finality of the court order was explained.
“No other way”
Muarip noted that roughly 85% of the estimated 1,200 affected residents had already packed their belongings by Friday morning.
“It’s normal for them to feel hurt because they’ve been here since 1980, but there is nothing more they can do because we have an order from the Supreme Court,” Muarip said in an interview in the area on Friday.
He emphasized that only the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), the Court of Appeals, or the Supreme Court could halt the proceedings.
Muarip said his office prepared 500 to 1,000 food packages for the affected families.
He also issued a stern warning to the public regarding land ownership.
“To our fellow citizens, if you do not own the land, let us reflect. Do not invest in improving land that isn’t yours because the time will come when it must be returned. Some cases involve land being sold to victims who are then surprised that there is already a demolition order,” Muarip added.
While the majority moved out, the Lastima family—heirs of Vicente Lastima, one of the 12 original tenants—made a last-minute attempt to stall the demolition.
Lady Jane Lastima Casunete claimed her family holds an original land title for 1.7 hectares.
However, representatives for the Ang-Lui property countered that the Lastima title was canceled in 2006 because they were not the original tenants and the land classification shifted from agricultural to commercial. The property in total is around 24 hectares.
The Lastima family filed for a temporary restraining order (TRO) on Monday and remained in the area as of this writing. They said until the 3 p.m. deadline on Friday, hoping for a court intervention that never arrived.
Their legal counsel was present on-site but declined to provide a statement to the press.
The clearing operations stem from DARAB Case No. XI-1973-DC-2007, implementing a May 2025 Supreme Court Resolution that reinstated a 2015 Writ of Possession.
To manage the 3,000-member demolition team and ensure public safety, the DCPO deployed a Civil Disturbance Management (CDM) unit.
Officers remained in a “standby” posture as “passive observers” due to the high level of community cooperation.
“We understood the situation when it was explained yesterday,” said one mother while carrying her two-year-old son and moving furniture. “There was no point in resisting a final order. We are just focused on moving our things safely,” she added.
Muarip noted that the Talomo Police Station, currently located in the area, will also be relocated to a new site in the near future.
Relocation and assistance efforts
In an interview on Thursday afternoon, Ariel Maranon, representative of the Lui family, clarified that the family has been offering relocation sites to the settlers of the Arroyo Compound in Matina Crossing since 2019.
To date, approximately 1,500 individuals have already accepted the offer to move to one of three designated relocation sites: Tacunan, Calinan Dacudao, and Talomo River Calinan.
Despite these prior efforts, more than 500 families remained in the Arroyo Compound, which became the subject of the demolition operations carried out this Friday, February 27, 2026.
Beyond providing land, Maranon noted that the Lui family provided cash assistance to those who availed of the relocation offer. Each family was allocated an 80-square-meter lot to build their new homes.
