'Encroachment into church land' claim
Published on: Thursday, June 13, 2013
Penampang: An upgrading of the trunk road from Donggongon to Kinarut had allegedly encroached up to three metres into the land leased to the Archdiocese of Kota Kinabalu in Kg Maang here.Representatives of the Church, Ernest Mojikon and Donald S. Malinggang found that a huge area on the ridge of the said land was used to fill the valley below the land."It was seen that the earthwork was badly done. The stay of one of the electricity posts on the land is exposed, and there is a danger of the electricity post tumbling over right into the existing trunk road," said Mojikon.
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The Archdiocese, through St. Michael's Church, was first informed by parishioners of the activity last May. They have already sent a letter of protest to the office of the Sabah Director of the Public Works Department. However, they were disappointed that despite the protest, the work of the said land was still going on."When the Penampang by-pass was constructed, land owners were informed, meetings between the government and land owners were held and amount of compensation was agreed before the project got off the ground.
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"Is this the current trend of the government agencies, just go ahead with projects without consultation with affected parties?" asked Mojikon.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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"A very big volume of earth had been moved from the land to fill a low-lying area which is part of the project and the Archdiocese must be paid for the amount of earth thus moved apart from being compensated an amount mutually agreed for the land acquired," said Mojikon.
