ILLEGAL SALE OF PUBLIC LAND WARNED

THE Sangguniang Panlungsod of Dagupan passed a resolution authorizing Mayor Belen Fernandez to apply before the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and other government agencies for a tenurial instrument over the public lands along the coast in Bonuan Gueset, Bonuan Boquig and Bonuan Binloc for eco-tourism and other development purposes.

Councilor Jose Netu Tamayo, who co-authored the resolution proposed by Councilor Karlos Reyna, chair of the SP committee on land use, said the DENR document will stop the rampant illegal sale of foreshore land by unscrupulous individuals.

Under Proclamation No. 98 signed in 1963 by then President Diosdado Macapagal, Dagupan is the designated administrator of more than 80 hectares of land along the city’s shoreline for development into parks and playgrounds.

Dagupan City Legal Officer Aurora Valle, during an earlier committee hearing on the measure, said “investors” from Calasiao and even as far as Baguio and Tarlac reportedly bought rights in some parts of the foreshore lands.

Valle said among those who were reported to have bought rights over the foreshore lands of were retired generals who installed warning signs that anyone who demolishes the fences that they have erected would be shot.

Community Environment and Natural Resources Officer Noriel Nisperos said that DENR has not issued a single Dagupan foreshore land lease agreement.

She pointed out that areas covered by Proclamation No. 98 and the sea form part of the foreshore and unclassified public land, of which the Dagupan City government has a preferential right to apply for tenurial rights.

Tamayo, quoting Marife Gapasin of DENR, said foreshore lands as well as unclassified public lands are owned by the “State,” referring to the Republic of the Philippines, and are therefore beyond the commerce of man, which means it is not subject to sale.

“Let this be a warning to our people that since the foreshore land and the unclassified public lands are owned by the State, selling any portions thereof is therefore a fraud,” Tamayo said.

Gapasin lamented that based on a recent inventory by her office, over 1,200 structures, mostly residential, have sprouted along the foreshore land and unclassified public lands of Dagupan, including four in the salvage zone, an area strictly reserved for public use and easements. (Leonardo Micua)

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