DENR ruling may displace Isabela town hall, render 10,000 residents homeless

SAN MATEO, Isabela – This town’s seat of government may soon be evicted from its home of more than 50 years following a decision favoring a long-time claimant of the land where the town hall and other local and national government offices are located.

The decision of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) favoring the claim of one Estefania Miguel-Guerrero as the owner of the land under a homestead patent would also displace 3,000 families or 10,000 people in the town proper. 

DENR regional technical personnel were already set to conduct a relocation survey of the disputed lots in compliance with decision of their central office in 2006, which practically transformed the seat of the local government and residents in the downtown area virtually homeless. Also affected are the public market and plaza.

Local officials and residents led by Mayor Roberto Agcaoili warned of a possible backlash if the relocation survey, which would pave the way for the Guerrero clan to own the disputed land, pushes through. 

Agcaoili said he and the other occupants of the questioned so-called Guerrero estate vowed to fight for their rights over the disputed land which they had developed upon presumption of rightful ownership more than 50 years ago.

“We will not yield to our rights to the land, which the municipal government and our constituents have been continuously occupying and have developed and nurtured in the past 50 years. The claimants had misinformed the DENR that this place is still barren,” he said.

The decision handed down by then DENR Secretary Angelo Reyes on Oct. 26, 2006 reversed the ruling of his predecessor, Michael Defensor, in October 2005 that favored the municipal government and residents in the land dispute.

In a letter to DENR regional director Clarence Baguilat last Nov. 25, the municipal government questioned why the DENR survey team would be accompanying a representative of the claimant for the relocation survey when “nothing in the (latest DENR) order would show that (the representative) is authorized to conduct a relocation survey.” 

“The survey would only create chaos and confusion among those people occupying the area since the 1950s. I want peace in my town,” said Agcaoili, expressing hope that DENR Secretary Lito Atienza would finally resolve the issue.

In his decision, Reyes relied on the argument that a fraudulent document obtained more than 50 years ago does not legitimize claim to a property over the passage of time.

He also noted that Guerrero’s claim under a homestead patent over the land had not been cancelled by any court order and was supposedly still valid. 

A homestead patent is an application for ownership over a piece or several pieces of land granted under the Public Land Act passed during the Commonwealth Period.