City issues moratorium, DENR orders inventory of patents to public lands

CEBU, Philippines - A moratorium on issuing private patents to public lands is on its way to implementation, Land Management Council of Cebu City Government chairman Atty. Jade Ponce yesterday revealed.

 Meanwhile, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-7 Regional Executive Director Dr . Isabelo R. Montejo ordered the inventory and submission of patents issued along rivers in Central Visayas.

"The council called for a moratorium pending a thorough review of  public lands earlier questionably issued lot titles," Ponce told reporters.

He added that the recommendation was decided and endorsed to the office of Mayor Michael Rama last June 18.

"The mayor has already expressed support when I talked to him. We are currently waiting for the formal approval," he said.

The moratorium, Ponce believed, coincidentally goes in time with the recent discovery that parts of Buhisan waterways were titled to private individuals.

"As defined, public lands are supposed to be inalienable. But this has been abused for years. An example is this previously state-owned lot utilized as road access. A family eventually applied for a patent and now it became their private property. Things like this need to be addressed," Ponce added.

Along with the recommendation of moratorium is requiring all applications to seek the approval of Land Management Council before acquiring patent for a public land to be converted into privately owned.

Pointing to recent discoveries that a number of state-owned lots were questionably turned into private, Ponce vowed that similar things will not occur under the close watch of the council should the moratorium be approved and implemented.

"Something like that (Buhisan river titled) will never happen under our watch," he said.

Ponce added that the council also eyes the implementation of Republic Act 10023 otherwise known as An Act Authorizing the Issuance of Free Patents to Residential Lands.

Meanwhile, at least 20 vehicles were apprehended by City Traffic Operations Management (CITOM) in barangay Buhisan during the initial enforcement of No Parking policy along the road leading to Buhisan Dam and watershed.

CITOM operations head Joy Tumulak said while they admittedly encountered sour reception from some of the affected residents, he stressed that this is for the good of the general public.

"We are doing this for their own safety so that in times of calamities, rescue vehicles can easily access these upland areas," Tumulak said.

He added that the operations conducted by CITOM, closely assisted by barangay officials who particularly handled the information dissemination, is part of the continuous monitoring of overnight parking around the city.

"It just happened that yesterday (Monday) was the time of Buhisan to be monitored. Since we do not have an enforcer assigned to the area, we asked the barangay council to call us should they observe violating vehicles obstructing the narrow road," Tumulak explained.

Barangay Buhisan was also included in the regular daily route of CITOM roving patrol for the South District.

On the first day of implementation, CITOM was able to apprehend four motorcycles, 14 four-wheeled vehicles, and two tricycles.

At the DENR, Director Isabelo R. Montejo ordered the inventory and submission of patents issued along rivers in Central Visayas.

In a memorandum dated August 12 signed by Montejo, it ordered the four provincial environment and natural resources officers (PENROs) and the eight community environment and natural resources officers (CENROs) in Region 7 to provide copies of the investigation reports before the issuance of titles and patents issued within their area of jurisdiction on or before Friday, August 15.

"They have to submit to the legal division all these documents as we will be conducting a probe to determine when these titles issued, in what circumstances and other information that may be relevant in the investigation particularly in the Buhisan river," Montejo said in a statement.

Buhisan River is within the jurisdiction of CENRO Cebu City. Atty. Fernando S. Alberca, chief of the legal division, will lead the investigation, according to DENR-7 spokesperson Ed Llamedo.

Section 51 of the Presidential Decree No. 1067 or the Water Code of the Philippines states that "the banks or rivers and streams and the shores of the seas and lakes throughout their entire length and within a zone of three meters in urban areas, 20 meters in agricultural areas, and 40 meters in forest areas, along their margins, are subject to the easement of public use in the interest of recreation, navigation, floatage, fishing, and salvage.

The same law provides that "no person shall be allowed to stay in this zone longer than what is necessary for recreation, navigation, floatage, fishing, and salvage or to build structures of any kind.

Based on the inventory of cases released by the legal division as of August 12, Llamedo said that about 110 land cases for cancellation or reversion mostly within foreshore or forestland areas have been filed by the DENR-7 in various regular courts in Region 7. Cebu has the most number of cases with 39, Bohol with 31, Negros Oriental and Siquijor with 13 apiece.

Montejo said that this investigation will not only focus on the Buhisan issue but the other rivers as well.

"We will not hesitate to file the appropriate complaints against DENR-7 officials or employees who may have aided in these alleged irregularities," he said. —  (FREEMAN)