Mayor Al: “It’s a long shot but there’s hope”
RECOVERY OF AWAI LAND
Just when the city was ready to give up, hope now flickers for Dagupan in its quest to recover the30-hectare property it bought from barangay Awai in San Jacinto.
This became apparent after the Department of Agrarian Reform decided to give the letter of the city seeking exemption of the property from coverage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) due course.
“It’s a long shot, but there is hope,” said a beaming Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr. in an interview at his fishpond rest house in Dagupan City.
The unexpected positive response of DAR was contained in a letter sent to City Legal Officer George Mejia on December 3 by Atty. Raul Laluan, OIC Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer.
The letter was a Notice of Conduct of Ocular Inspection by a team from the DAR regional office in San Fernando City, La Union of the 30-hectare property sought to be exempted from CARP coverage by the city of Dagupan.
The property was bought by the city from one Jose Mariano Cuña for P16 million, just three months after the latter bought the same from Estrella Sanggalang of San Jacinto for only P7 million.
Before Cuna sold the land to the city government, a petition for redemption was filed by tenants of the same before the Department of Agrarian Reform Arbitration Board (DARAB) but this fact was kept away from the public early on.
Moreover, the city government never responded to the petition after it acquired the property.
DARAB consequently remanded the case before the DAR operations division for compulsory coverage by CARP noting that the city government did not even bother to file its answer to nor file a motion for reconsideration of the decision.
Laluan asked representatives of the Dagupan City government to go with the team to inspect the property.—LM
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