By Aileen P. Refuerzo
BAGUIO
CITY – Owners of the illegal structures at the area designated for a tree
nursery at the Busol watershed here fulfilled their commitment to voluntarily
demolish the shanties after 10-day grace period granted to them by the city
government.
Engr.
Israel Galvez of the city buildings and architecture office said the occupants
said the occupants were the in the process of taking down the shanties as of
last Thursday.
The
city government agreed to defer the implementation of the demolition for ten days
after the occupants appealed for more time to consider voluntarily demolishing
the structures.
The
10-day reprieve expired last Sunday.
The
area has been designated as a tree nursery and field office of the Dept. of
Environment and Natural Resources, the Baguio Regreening Movement and the city
environment and parks management office.
Mayor
Mauricio Domogan said that with the resolution of the legal issues involving
the squatters at the watershed, the City will pursue the demolition of all
illegal structures to protect the reservation which supplies a third of the
city’s water needs.
Apart
from the nursery site, demolition notices will be issued to the owners of the
small and large structures in the other parts of the watershed.
He
also directed the investigation of alleged new structures and the filing of new
cases against those who will continue to defy the law.
The
Supreme Court issued a decision in 1989 denying land registration over the
forest reservation maintaining that “forest lands are inalienable and
possession thereof, no matter how long, cannot convert the same into private
property… and the courts are without jurisdiction to adjudicate lands within
the forest zone.”
In
a decision dated Feb. 4, 2009, the Supreme Court cited the same decision saying
the “declaration of the Busol Forest Reservation as such precludes its
conversion into private property” and reiterated the same in succeeding
decisions dated Feb. 27, 2013 and Feb. 14, 2014.
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