Dagupan starts initiative to recover Awai property
AFTER LOSING BY DEFAULT
Sanitary landfill to be pushed
SAN JACINTO–The city of Dagupan finally began a serious offensive to retake the whole 30-hectare land it bought in barangay Awai, San Jacinto in 2002, but lost the following year to the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) by default.
City Officials led by City Legal Officer George Mejia served notice of their determination to recover all of the property in a meeting on December 10 in Awai with officials of the Department of Agrarian Reform led by Assistant Regional Director Felicidad Dumaguing.
The land was taken over by CARP just less than a year after it was bought by the city for P16 million by virtue of a decision promulgated by the Department of Agrarian Reform Arbitration Board (DARAB) on July 3, 2003.
The same became final and executory on September 11, 2003 without Dagupan filing a motion for reconsideration.
Also in that meeting were DAR Regional Office Legal Officer Sarah Marcos Martin and Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer Raul Laluan, a lawyer, including the nine tenants tilling portions of the property.
After the meeting, DAR and Dagupan officials jointly conducted an ocular inspection of Awai in a bid to give due course to Dagupan’s renewed initiative to reclaim the property.
Laluan explained that the Awai land was part of the 100-hectare property of the late Juan Fernandez.
When the property was placed under Agrarian Reform, 70 hectares went to CARP while 30 hectares were retained by the six heirs at five hectares each.
However, one of the heirs of Fernandez, Estrella Sangalang, acting in her behalf and the other heirs, sold the same to one Jose Mariano Cuna on Dec. 18, 2001 for P7 million, prompting the tenants to file a case for redemption before DARAB.
When the property was still under the heirs, the tenants did not make a move but when the land was consolidated by Cuna, they filed the petition.
While the case was still pending, Cuna sold the property to Dagupan for P16 million on March 11, 2003, making Dagupan one of the respondents, along with Cuna, Sangalang and the Land Bank of the Philippines.
Laluan said although Dagupan was notified about the complaint, it never bothered to reply and neither did it file a motion for reconsideration when DARAB decided on the case.
Although the city government knew that the DARAB decision was already final and executory, it acted in to claim back the land earlier envisioned by the city government as site for sanitary landfill, tree park, resettlement and even as a possible source of potable water in case the Dagupan aquifer dries up.
Mejia said he wants all the 30-hectare property back out of which Dagupan needs at least 10 hectares as landfill site, 10 hectares for the tree park and also sites for the Material Recovery Facility, fertilizer factory, water system and other improvements, City Waste Management Officer Reginaldo Ubando said.
SECOND LOOK
DAR is taking a second look because of Dagupan’s claim that the area is 18 per cent slope and therefore unsuitable to any type of agriculture, and also undeveloped.
Whether Dagupan can recover the property will now depend on the decision of the DAR regional director.
DAR asked the Dagupan City government to submit a topographical map of the area to support its contention that the same is 18 per cent slope, and a copy of the ordinance of the San Jacinto municipal council that declared the same as an industrial zone.
Ubando said an investor will be asked to build the sanitary landfill since the Dagupan government can not afford to construct it.
It will also be asked to build the fertilizer plant that will convert garbage into fertilizers for export and sale in the domestic market.
He added most of the residents of barangay Awai will be taken to work in the sanitary landfill and the fertilizer factory, boosting their income.
But prior to building the sanitary landfill, the long narrow road to barangay Awai will be widened and concreted to be able accommodate trucks from Dagupan bringing in garbage.
Most of the tenants of the property seemed to favor the Dagupan project except two who prefer the land to stay under the CARP since the decision of DARAB is supposedly already final and executory.—LM
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