Sagada, Besao boundary dispute up; tourists barred from entering Lake Danum

By Gina Dizon

SAGADA, Mountain Province – The boundary dispute between Sagada and Besao towns has heated up last week after folks of the former barred tourists from viewing the popular Besao Sunset here at Lake Danum by guarding the entrance of the lake.

 This, after an executive order was issued by Besao mayor Johnson Bantog following issues on garbage and ownership.

A joint municipal resolution issued by the Sagada Municipal Peace and Order Council with the Sangguniang Bayan here however did not recognize Executive Order 44 as said site is “contested” with Sagada claiming the site much as Besao is claiming said area.

While ownership had been an issue over the years, common concerns on garbage disposal and ecological upkeep of the lake and its peripheries are more immediate issues that remain to be tackled by both municipalities following Executive Order 8 issued by Bantog and said Resolution No 1 of Sagada’s MPOC and SB that contain similar issues on waste management.

Municipal Ordinance No. 8 of 2019 issued by Bantog prohibits “all human activities” within Lake Banao and its immediate premises and mandates the preservation of the environment of Banao lake. Municipal Resolution No 1 of the MPOC and the Sagada SB cites the need of an agreement for both municipalities on non-garbage disposal in the lake and its peripheries. Besao in their comprehensive land use plan considers Banao Lake as watershed while Sagada in their CLUP considers Banao Lake as an eco-tourism site.

EO No 8 stems from Besao’s Municipal Order 44 of 2018 prohibiting human activities and asserts exclusive jurisdiction of Banao Lake citing Sanngguniang Panlalawigan Resolution No. 2016-027 that lake Banao is under the sole jurisdiction of Besao. Besao’s municipal ordinance 44 provides human activities are not allowed within 250 meters from the lake namely horseback riding, boating, fishing except the use of fishhooks and only during March April and May, bonfires, butchering chickens or animals, drinking liquor or intoxicating drinks, smoking, washing of clothes, leaving garbage, parking, urinating and discharging human waste, building any structure permanent or temporary, washing of motor vehicles and gardening.

Said EO 8 cites exemptions namely conduct of rituals by community elders of Besao, cleaning, weeding and clearing of the two lakes, and tree planting activities Besao folks claim peripheries of Lake Banao is owned by Besao based on a Sangguniang Panlalawigan resolution 2016 -027 recognizing Municipal Order No. 44 to restore, conserve and reserve ether environment and ecosystem of Banao Lake.

Said SP resolution finds said municipal ordinance 44 in harmony with the local government code on waste disposal system. Besao’s municipal ordinance 44 upholds a 1976 Sangguniang Panlalawigan resolution citing that Lake Banao is under the jurisdiction of Besao.

 The Sangguniang Panlalawigan is mandated to settle matters of boundary disputes between and among local government units. It was learned that a joint barangay resolution of Suquib, Besao East and Besao West prohibits vending within the vicinity of the lake.

Vending is one of the hotly contested activities by Besao folks on Sagada’s enterprising folks and a certain Jaijalini, an Indian national and resident of Besao who was given a business permit by the Municipality of Besao except not to sell at the peripheries of Banao Lake.

Sagada is one with Besao on the non-dumping of garbage, no vending allowed, no commercial buildings and no use of pesticides and funguicides and that there be a joint management of the two municipalities on said restrictions. Sagada on the other hand does not recognize EO 44 of Besao as the area is a “contested” site between Sagada and Besao.

Sagada also according to the joint MPOC and SB resolution No 1 does not recognize SP Resolution of 1976 as not valid and is in violation to “due process’ where it was not subjected under a hearing where people from Sagada were consulted.

A special committee then chaired by former board member Sergio Kawi then formed in 1976 by the then Provincial Sangguniang Bayan “recommended based on evidence both oral and documentary that the Provincial Sangguniang Bayan establish the boundary between Sagada and Besao to be from Mt Tinangdanan following the top of the mountain ridge eastward to Dananao then northward following the mountain ridge to Banao then northward following the top of the ride towards Mt Sisipitan”.

This, following the claim of then Besao mayor Alfredo Agdaca that the boundary starts from Mt Tinangdanan following the mountain ridge eastward to Dananao then northward following the mountain ridge to the road saddle in Banao where the boundary monument was placed by the Mason Surveying Corporation then northward towards Mt Sisipitan.

In said 1976 resolution, then Sagada mayor Bernard Capuyan claimed that the boundary started from Mt Tinangdanan following a straight line northward to Mogao thence following a straight line to Sisipitan. Capuyan claimed the boundary was based on a map made by the Army sometime in 1967 and another map mentioned by then former Mayor Angel Agpad. Said Amy map has no technical descriptions.

Sagada delegation was then composed of then mayor Bernard Capuyan, former mayor Angel Agpad and former Congressman Juan Bondad. Besao delegation was then composed of Sanggunian Bayan members, former mayor Abundio Gawigawen, then Mayor Alfredo Agdaca and Engr Ronaldo Aurelio of the Mason Surveying Corporation. Said site is also a contested ancestral domain between the two municipalities.

Sometime in 2004, old men from Sagada went to the peripheries of Lake Danum to meet with elders from Besao to settle the boundary dispute the customary way but no clear agreements were reached.