CONSTRUCTION of One Bonuan Pavillon in Barangay Bonuan Binloc, through funds made available by Senator Risa Hontiveros, is stalled by the discovery that illegal settlers, most of them affluent, have mushroomed over large tracts of foreshore lands owned by the state, in the same area pinpointed as location of the project.

Alarmed by the report, Mayor Belen Fernandez called a meeting at City Hall on June 26 attended by Dagupan police, Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) in Dagupan City and concerned department heads where video footages show permanent structures and fences that enclose large areas of the beach close to the shoreline built as rest houses and resorts owned by rich people.

The video footages also showed the illegal structures located at the northern side of the Tondaligan Baywalk or close to the sea from Bonuan Gueset to Bonuan BInloc, passing through Bonuan Boquig.

City Legal Officer Aurora Valle said “the properties are classified as foreshore lands which cannot be acquired since the same is not alienable and disposable”.

Valle said Dagupan City wants to develop the area as eco-tourism site, the illegal structures in the foreshore land pose big obstructions to the program.

OIC City Engineer Josephine Corpuz confirmed the presence of the structure during an ocular inspection of the proposed site of the One Bonuan Pavilion.

Dagupan CENRO said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources could not have issued leasehold agreements to the occupants of the area.

CENRO’s Noriel Nisperos said areas occupied were unclassified public lands that can be considered as public forests, for which the DENR central office has yet to issue a policy direction.

He said those occupying the area, which he considers as untenured occupants, have no legal authority to stay there, they are considered illegal but whether CENRO can expel the illegal occupants of the area, he said his office cannot do it because it has no police power.

Instead, he asked LGU Dagupan to initiate the demolition of the illegal structures since these structures and improvements also have no valid building permits.

It was learned that some of the untenured occupants have long been on the place, holding only tax declarations, which they were able to obtain from the City Assessor’s Office in the past.

OIC City Assessor Roland Suni, however, said that since he returned as OIC of the City Assessor’s Office last year, no tax declaration has been issued on those properties.

He admitted that some of the  tax declarations over those properties date way back in the 1990s, presumably anticipating the DENR will soon declare the area as alienable and disposable.

Mayor Fernandez ordered the preparation of  a list of illegal occupants preparatory to the legal action that will  be taken against them. (Leonardo Micua )

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