Two town mayors agree NAMRIA to settle boundary dispute

ORMOC CITY , Philippines  — The tense dispute over boundary between two towns in the 4th district of Leyte province have simmered down, at least for now, when their respective mayors have agreed to let a government agency settle it with finality.

Mayor Ramon Oñate of Palompon town and Mayor Saturnino Medina, Jr. of Isabel have agreed to have the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) ascertain the boundary.

NAMRIA is a government agency that surveys and maps out the land and water resources of the country.

Governor Carlos Jericho Petilla, who interceded in the dispute by meeting the two mayors along with Rep. Lucy Torres Gomez (4th dist., Leyte), said the most important outcome was that the two agreed to "accept the survey results of NAMRIA without question."

Petilla has committed himself to be the one to contract the services of NAMRIA to end the conflict. "All's well that ends well," he said after coming out from the closed-door meeting at the Sabin Resort Hotel in this city on January 29.

Oñate and Medina have been fighting over the correct delineation of boundary between Tabunok-Isabel and Tabunok-Palompon, and their respective supporters have reportedly been moving boundary markers from one site to the other and back.

The situation also affected a P45-million bridge construction project that Lucy had put up with funds from the national government to repair the Raquiza bridge, which ran in the middle and caused flooding in the nearby rice lands whenever it overflowed.

On the political spectrum, Oñate is a Liberal Party member and Lucy's only incumbent mayor in the district while Medina ran under Lakas and supported the congressional bid of her opponent Eufrocino Codilla Jr. in the May 10 elections.

Lucy however did not elaborate on this underpinning but said she was glad that both mayors have agreed to sign the memorandum of agreement for the bridge's construction with the Department of Public Works and Highways.

She thanked both mayors for putting the welfare of their constituents above anything else. "Mao man na ang importante, ang kaayuhan sa katawhan," she said.