PNP urged to guard Forbes Park from land speculators

By Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY – The city environment and parks management office recommended police patrols at the Forbes Park here to safeguard the area from intrusion.

            CEPMO officer-in-charge Cordelia Lacsamana suggested this in a report to Mayor Mauricio Domogan following an on-site investigation conducted by the CEPMO forestry team on incidents illegal dumping of earth materials at Parcel No. 1 of the forest reservation.

            The mayor last Monday ordered the CEPMO to investigate the reported soil dumping activities in the area saying the lots which are now the subject of reclaiming proceedings, have to be guarded against land speculators.

            He said any construction should not be allowed in the area pending resolution of the city’s petition for the nullification of the Certificates of Ancestral Land Titles (CALTs) issued by the National  Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) over parcels of the forest reservation.

            In her endorsement to the mayor, Lacsamana reiterated the recommendations of acting forestry division chief Walter Aguirre for the police to apprehend the dump truck drivers who undertook the dumping of soil and for the creation of an inter-agency composite team to conduct an indepth probe over the incident.

            Aguirre in his report said he noticed an estimated 20 cubic meters of earth materials dumped at the portion of Forbes Park while part of the wire fence was cut to give way to vehicles.

            He chanced upon one dump truck whose driver when confronted admitted voluntarily dumping the soil.

            Aguirre said on April 20 he returned to the area after receiving a text message on another soil dumping which he said he was able to stop.

            Aguirre said there was no concrete evidence on who gave the authority to dump the soil in the area “unless the drives of the dump trucks will be apprehended and give their statements under oath.”

The mayor earlier called for vigilance in protecting forest reservations and public lands now in dire situation due to bogus land claims and titles.

            Apart from Forbes Park, Wright Park, Botanical Garden are also now in danger due to the issuance of spurious CALTs while Busol watershed is also mired in squatting cases which remained unresolved due to NCIP’s interference.

            The mayor said that while the city government is doing its best to protect the said supposed reservations, support and vigilance from the public is necessary to rally authorities into acting in favor of the city in its on-gong legal battle to recover said forest reservations and retain them as such.

            “These are the bigger problems (for which) we need everybody’s support because if we lose in our legal battle to reclaim these areas, then we can just imagine what will happen to our environment and to our city,” the mayor stressed.

            The mayor said this cause is more realizable as the lots involved are not private properties but part of public domain that are supposed to be inalienable.

            The city has pending petition through the Office of the Solicitor General with the Court of Appeals for the cancellation of the CALTs issued over parcels of land within said reservations and of titles covering prime pieces of property which were subdivided and eventually expanded by several hectares in Pacdal and Dontogan barangays.

            He said the city legal office has also filed a petition for the cancellation of the CALTs issued over Botanical Garden.