"Intruders! Intruders! Intruders!”, shouted a group of islanders, while forming a barrier to try to prevent the technicians of the Polis Ria Formosa Society from taking administrative possession of a house in the nucleus of the Farol of Culatra Island, in Faro, this Wednesday.
A vain effort, as the house was actually marked with a blue number and the notification that the building is now owned by the State, which will demolish it, was posted.
The beginning of this process, which will have new episodes tomorrow, February 23 (Farol), and on March 3 (Hangares), it was not peaceful. About a hundred and a half people surrounded the Polis technicians, who were escorted by 40 elements of the Maritime Police, shouting slogans, interspersed with insults and even threats.
Absent was José Pacheco, the new president of Sociedade Polis Ria Formosa, who did not visit the Farol to monitor the takeover of the houses.
On the islanders' side, Feliciano Júlio, president of the Ilha do Faro21 from Santa Maria, he was appealing to calm down his spirits, as he closely followed the operation. Yesterday, the XNUMXst of February, they were admitted to the Court of Faro three injunctions, relating to civil lawsuits claiming possession for adverse possession, but they ended up not preventing the marking of the houses, as the Polis has not yet been notified of the court's decision.
Three other measures, which were accepted by the Loulé Administrative Court, led to the Polis taking possession of only 12 of the 15 houses that should have been marked for demolition.
Tomorrow, the day on which 18 more buildings are expected to take possession, another four Provisional Measures (civil) will be delivered, which, as happened today, should not prevent the Society from marking and pasting the official notification of taking possession.
That is, of the 33 houses of the Farol that would be destined to go down, ten still depend on court proceedings. To these, it is necessary to add the three whose maintenance is being negotiated between the representatives of the islanders and the minister of the Environment, all of them of "first residence". Two of them “belong to fishing and seafood professionals”, the other is owned by a retired fisherman, master Leandro.
It was, moreover, at the door of this former fisherman and boat master that the first moments of real tension were registered. Despite protests from the owner of the house and other islanders and the warnings from Feliciano Júlio that the situation of the house was still under negotiation, Polis technicians moved forward to take possession.
Master Leandro, in statements to Sul Informação, guaranteed that he will not accept that his house collapses, since this is the only one he has in his name. «My children have a house in Olhão, but I only have this house. I bought it more than 20 years ago and I live here when my health leaves me”, says the former fishing professional.
"If they come to demolish my house, I'll lock myself inside", assured the master Leandro, who once had his own boat and led crews "of 60 men". «Everything I have and had, I got with these here», he guarantees, patting his arms in a determined manner.
Master Leandro's revolt is paralleled by that of other islanders, even those whose houses will not, at least for now, be demolished. On several occasions, the population tried to put themselves in front of the Polis and Maritime Police technicians, to prevent notifications, which led to some “hotter” moments, in which there were pulling and pushing.
Even so, the Maritime Police, through Commander Pedro Palma, the official responsible for communication, in this action, considered that everything went well. “Nobody got hurt, it's okay. The swearing-in took place normally», he assured.
“This was a Polis operation. The Maritime Police was called in to guarantee the security of both the elements of the Polis and the local population», he said. In addition to the 40 elements of the Maritime Police, there were also "a nurse, an ISN boat and a Red Cross boat."
Tomorrow, Thursday, Polis technicians return to the Farol to take administrative possession of the remaining houses to be demolished and they will have to accompany them a contingent of the Maritime Police “similar to today”.
See images of the Polis operation and the tension that surrounded it:
Photos: Hugo Rodrigues | Sul Informação
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