City has last chance to recover Awai land
THE chances of Dagupan City to retain ownership of the 30-hectare land bought by the city purportedly for a sanitary landfill dimmed further after the regional office of the Department of Agrarian Reform denied the city government’s appeal.
This leaves the city government only one avenue- to appeal the decision of the Department of Agrarian Reform Arbitration Board (DARAB) in Pangasinan awarding ownership to the farm tenants, to DAR’s central office.
This last option was gleaned from a letter of the Department of Agrarian Reform central office asking the city government to file its memorandum appeal in response to the city government’s frantic appeal.
City Legal Officer George Mejia said the notice indicates that DAR has taken cognizance of the appeal.
“As the saying goes, hopes spring eternal, so hopefully we can still recover the property, said Mejia, although he refused to discuss the merits of the case being “sub judice”.
Located in barangay Awai, San Jacinto, the 30-hectare property—that was part of a 90-hectare estate—used to be owned by the heirs of the late Pangasinan Governor Juan Fernandez.
When the entire estate was subjected under agrarian reform, only 30 hectares were retained by the heirs. This was the part sold to the city by one Jose Mariano Cuna who earlier bought the same from Estrella Sangalang, one of the heirs.
A few months after the land was paid in full, the land was placed under the coverage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in a decision handed down by the DARAB.
But that the administration of then Mayor Benjamin Lim never filed an appeal or motion for reconsideration on the decision of DARAB.
It was already the city government under Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr. that appealed the decision of DARAB before the DAR regional office. When the latter office denied the appeal, Dagupan elevated it with the DAR central office.
The DAR central office finally replied requiring the city to file a memorandum of appeal.—LM
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