IT’S back to the drawing board for the Dagupan City government in its bid to recover the 31-hectare lot in barangay Awai, San Jacinto that it bought in 2002, and its chances of succeeding are not getting any better.

This after the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) regional office denied the city’s motion for reconsideration on the decision of the Department of Agrarian Reform Arbitration Board (DARAB) in Pangasinan placing the land under compulsory coverage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARP).

In a last-ditch effort, the city government quickly filed an appeal before the DAR central office to prevent the land it bought for P16 million from being divided among its existing tenants who filed the case for redemption before DARAB.

Dagupan City Legal Officer George Mejia said the DAR regional office denied the city’s motion for reconsideration despite the city’s submission of proof that no improvement whatsoever has been introduced in the area.

Moreover, he said the DAR did not give the topographical map submitted by Dagupan City that showed that the area is sloping and, therefore, unfit for agriculture, any credence.

He accused the DAR regional office of clear bias in favor of the tenants when the later rejected the appeal without considering the merit of the city government’s appeal and arguments.

The 31-hectare land, located in barangay Awai was bought by the Dagupan City government during the term of Mayor Benjamin Lim for P16 million, ostensibly as the site for sanitary landfill for Dagupan and San Jacinto.

The Lim administration rushed to pay the landowner, Jose Mariano Cuña of Dagupan City, even as claims and counterclaims over rights to the land were pending before the DARAB.

The original respondents of the case were Cuña and Estrella Sangalang, administratix of the property owned by the heirs of one Juan Fernandez.

The Dagupan City government, under Mayor Lim, effectively lost by default after the latter failed to respond to the petition filed by the land tenants. No petition or motion for reconsideration was filed by the city government even after the decision turning over the rights to the tenants was issued by DARAB.

The appeal that was rejected was filed by the administration of Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr.

“Our present appeal if granted will at least disallow the DAR regional and provincial offices to distribute the land to the tenants under the CARP,” said Mejia.

He said Mayor Fernandez, who succeeded Mayor Lim in July 2007, directed him to exhaust all legal means to recover the property.

However, the Fernandez administration has not decided whether to file appropriate charges against the city officials and other individuals who were responsible for the purchase and loss of the 31-hectare land in San Jacinto.- LM

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