PARKING YOUR CAR IN A PRIVATE SUBDIVISION

Barangay officers entered our village and attempted to give me a ticket and get my car towed.

I live in a compound and we have a new neighbor who just moved in so our shared parking/driveway isn’t in an optimal condition for everybody to park their cars in.

There are boxes and unpacked items outside.

There’s also Covid-19 to consider.

Keeping everybody’s car inside the compound will increase the likelihood of in-person contact.

I live in a street that’s close to a dead-end with just two neighboring houses.

Nobody minds if we park the car outside the compound.

We already confirmed with the neighbors.

One day, the barrangay knocked on my door asked me to move the car.

I moved my car.

Several days later, the baranggay came back early in the day and was screaming about how it’s now illegal to park the car outside of our garrage.

I enjoy the benefits of the space in our location.

There also doesn’t seem to be an urgent need to compress into the tight parking spot.

The baranggay rep claimed that there was an anonymous report about illegal parking happening in our street.

They already cleared the entire street of people who park their cars in the street except for my car and my neighbor’s car.

There are people from other streets who park their car inside our street.

I get that those cars can be asked to leave.

Our cars are parked in front of the property that we live in.

The baranggay representative was aggressive and even performed a good cop bad cop modus on me and my neighbors.

I sent friends this message:

Receiving harrassment at our place because of parking.

Barangay is going inside the subdivision threatening to give a ticket for parking in front of our place.

I asked the representative what the trouble was about.

The representative claimed to receive a complaint in the barangay text line about cars parking in our street obstucting the road.

Our place is located in a dead end.

I wanted to negotiate with the person who complained because I’m new to driving and not used to parking at tight spaces.

The barangay began to threaten me asking for my license to give me a ticket and tow my car.

I asked for help and here’s what I got.

1. I live in a private village the barangay has no jurisdiction over an anonymous call.

2. My street leads to a dead end. There is no application for the right of way.

3. The baranggay representatives need to have written approval from the homeowners association granting them access to do whatever they are doing.

4. If they have none of the above and attempt to tow my car. I can charge them for carnapping.

5. I don’t have to give my license to the representative because my car is parked.

I’ll probably receive some bashers insisting “sumunod ka nalang.”

I’m glad I didn’t.

We live in a time where people in power abuse their priveledges.

Covid-19 hurts everybody financially.

The representatives might have just taken the opportunity to collect a few thousand pesos from the modus.

UPDATE:

I should have asked the baranggay representative to see their ID’s.

I can take a photo of their ID’s and let them know that if they continue to harass me and my neighbors, I can report them to city hall.

I can have the subdivision guards kick them out of the village.

My biggest mistake was I interacted in a way that I was extremely agreeable and cooperative and the reprentative playing “bad cop” took advantage of the situation by yelling threats.

UPDATE 2:

We spoke to the homeowners association president and we ARE allowed to park the car in our side-street as long as we follow a single-lane parking procedure and we are not blocking the road.

The baranggay representative went back and when I told them that I confirmed with homeowners, they quietly left and went to our homeowners association office.

I offered to come with them but they said that they’d go on their own.

The person who submitted the anonymous report is being investigated.

None of my neighbors claim to have a complaint about where our cars are parked.

Written on March 29th, 2021 by Kevin Olega