RESOLUTION OF BRGY AWAI LAND DISPUTE

MAYOR Belen Fernandez continues to await the action of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) after she wrote the later last week asking for authority to select and accept in behalf of the city, the five hectares of land that the city of Dagupan will retain as owner of the more than 29-hectare property it bought in April 2002 for P16 million.

The retention clause was cited in the resolution of the case that was resolved under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

City Secretary Ryan Ravanzo said the mayor’s request was not taken up by the SP because its September 26 regular session was cancelled due to a scheduled seminar called by the Department of the Interior and Local Government in Baguio and the City councilors were expected to attend.

While the seminar was also canceled due to the forecasted Typhoon Karding, Ravanzo said there was no follow up letter from the mayor’s office calling for a special session of the SP whose sole agenda would have been about the needed authority that Mayor Fernandez requested.

According to City Legal Officer Aurora Valle, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)gave the city  only 30 days to exercise the option to choose where the five-hectare retention area will be located.

Last week, Mayor Fernandez, Valle and a some officials of Dagupan City joined a field inspection of the property in Barangay Bolo and Awai San Jacinto for the purpose of seeing for themselves the more than 29-hectare property, which was one of the  procedures in implementing the final notice of coverage of the property issued by the DAR secretary.

The controversial property was sold by one Jose Mariano Cuna to Dagupan City in  April 2002 for P16 million,  just four months after buying  the same for P7 million from Estrella Sanggalang,  one of the heirs of the original owner of the property. Cuna knew all along that the land is under CARP’s coverage.

The sale of the property happened during the first few months of the administration of then Mayor Benjamin Lim in 2002.

Valle warned that if Dagupan City fails to exercise its option to choose the five-hectare retention area, the DAR will make the decision for the city.

“So, we better exercise that option because we want to choose contiguous areas that will suit for our own purposes,” Valle said.

She also said that in case the five-hectare retention area that will be chosen by Dagupan is tenanted, the tenants will have to execute a leasehold agreement with Dagupan City. (Leonardo Micua)

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