Who owns Tondaligan Park?

The PUNCH has reported in the past indications of illegal occupancy and sale of parcels of land inside the Tondaligan Park in Dagupan City to some affluent families and businessmen. The same issue has been discussed by columnist Gonzalo Duque in his columns and his latest drew an unusual emotional outburst from Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez.   

But before the issue is reduced merely to charges and counter-charges between the vice mayor and our Mr. Duque, as to who said what and who lied, the fact remains that there are parcels of land being claimed to be owned by influential individuals and groups other than the government, and that nobody in government is being made to account for this ongoing big-time racket.

The city government cannot pooh-pooh the issue and treat it like it was simply another deal that went wrong but reported in media and therefore should be ignored. But we have news for the city officials – this one is not going to be blown away. This multi-million (billion by Duque’s source’s estimate) racket has already reared an ugly monstrous head gobbling up monies courtesy of syndicate members operating inside government agencies, presumably including the Dagupan City government. Unless the syndicate is exposed and decimated today, soon city residents and visitors will wake up to see most of the areas inside the park fenced off by “owners” and the city government would likely “act” helpless to do anything about it.
  

If the city government’s investigation has been completed then it cannot but yield the basic information, meaning names not only of “owners” who have been paying “taxes” annually based on fraudulent tax declarations over the years but names of officials in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Register of Deeds, the Assessor’s Office, the Mayor’s office who facilitated the consummation of the “sale”.  

The  DENR is reportedly conducting its separate investigation and it would be a terrible embarrassment for the Dagupan City government if the latter cannot even come close to the findings of the former, or vice versa. But then again, we realize that there is also the possibility of a conspiracy by and among today’s officials to fabricate the findings and effectively sweep the dirt under the rug. But they must be warned.  For as long as there will be claimants to these “old” lands inside Tondaligan, nothing rotten such as this can be hidden for long. Eventually, all those who are part of today’s conspiracy to deceive the public will also soon be held accountable by the next set of authorities who would have the political will to right the wrong.   

Vice Mayor Fernandez is, therefore, barking up the wrong tree by merely assailing Duque’s claims. He should instead make the results of the investigation public and name the persons who should be prosecuted based on the findings.

It’s time the public learns who “owns” Tondaligan Park and who “sold” it.

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