By Leonardo Micua

 

“THIS AREA IS NOT FOR SALE”.

Thus read streamers put up by CENRO Central Pangasinan on some of the fences erected by still unidentified individuals in the foreshore lands of Bonuan, starting from Gueset to Boquig and to Binloc.

It is a notice to the public informing all and sundry that the fenced area is classified as foreshore/public domain and therefore, no structure/improvement is allowed without any authority from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

CENRO Central Pangasinan is too late the hero here, to borrow the title of an old war film starring Cliff Robertson and Michael Caine.

It is because the fenced structures that they now see with their two eyes indicate the demarcation of land-grabbed properties reserved as classy vacation house and business resorts.

It is a half-hearted reaction of a government agency that failed to enforce the law as overseer of lands of public domain, which are virtually a stone’s throw away from where  it holds office—Bonuan Tondaligan.

Had it opened its eyes earlier, it would have prevented a massive land grabbing activity perpetrated by some people in a conspiracy to deprive us of our beach.

Imagine, the fences were built close to each other, denying marginal fishermen their closest access to the Lingayen Gulf where they catch fish for a living.

CENRO swore that it never issued leasehold agreement or any document to that effect to any occupants of the untenured properties along the Dagupan beach.

But how can CENRO Dagupan not have known that massive land grabbing was going on in the beach area, when in fact it holds office within the beach area itself?

While we don’t suspect that on one or two of CENRO employees may be in complicity with a suspected syndicate engaged in selling supposed rights to occupy the foreshore land/ public domain as yet, we may be compelled to do so if  CENRO Central Pangasinan and the entire DENR will not move soon to recover these foreshore lands from vultures and land grabbers.

The agency can still redeem its integrity by demolishing all the fence enclosures, including all illegally-built structures within such enclosures, not tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, but today.

We can only suspect that some people made money by selling purported documents that had emboldened the buyers to erect fence enclosures over large portions of the beach area.

I was informed that the claimants of the untenured properties are holders of only tax declarations, which everybody knows, are never considered valid land titles recognized by the law, but just a proof of payment of taxes.

I also heard that one can easily be issued a tax declaration by the Assessor office just by showing sketch plans of the property he is claiming with no verification whatsoever if the land presented is really his.

Mayor Belen Fernandez was surprised to see the foreshore land in the three Bonuan barangays already teeming with untenured properties which DENR considers as illegal per se because the agency never executed a leasehold agreement with any owner thereof.

I can remember Belen, when she was still the city vice mayor, exposed massive land grabbing activities in Binloc. She eventually stopped the racketeering when she became mayor.

It must have resumed with more intensity and impunity during the three years of Brian Lim.

I heard that some of those who built fence enclosures over the foreshore lands in Bonuan are not ordinary people, but affluent businessmen with standing in the community.

Ordinary people cannot build vacation houses and beach resorts but the rich people can. It’s about time that they are exposed.

This is why, CENRO Central Pangasinan and LGU Dagupan must work as one in order to identify the holy cows that were given the nod to encroach on large portions of the beach, and more importantly, the persons or officials who gave them the nod.

I am sure the people who masterminded this caper that virtually gave away our foreshore lands already had a grand time laughing all the way to their banks.

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments