BEHIND THE SCENES
Alfred P Dizon
BAGUIO
CITY – Here is a statement of Mayor Benjamin Magalong on incursions of
private individuals over portions of the Stock Farm:
In a letter dated June 22, 2021, our office was informed by the Department of Agriculture Regional Field Office – Cordillera that last May 2021, certain individuals tried to survey portions of the Baguio Stock Farm covered by Proclamation No. 603, Series 1940.
Elements of the Bureau of Animal Industry barred them from doing so.
Proclamation No. 603, Series 1940 reserved said land for animal breeding purposes of the national government.
Intrusion upon said reservation happened anew, June 2021, when a group of men led by one Mailed Molina, were claiming portions of the reservation for private purposes, based on a purported land claim by the heirs of Ikang Paus.
While these intrusions were happening, officials and employees of the Department of Agriculture reportedly received threats of harm.
We cannot allow and we are not allowing these.
There are no indications that portions of the reservation had been reclassified to allow private ownership. More importantly, these purported land claims have placed the Baguio Stock Farm under dangers of irreversible destruction.
For the foregoing reasons, I am tasking the Baguio City Police Office to secure the Baguio Stock Farm from unwanted intrusions; and, to ensure no intimidation of any form reaches those who only seek to defend it. Make apprehensions, if need be, and file the proper cases in court.
The validity of titles and claims of private individuals in the area are now being determined before a local court. Allow the case to take its natural flow. In this regard, I am tasking the City Legal Office to coordinate with Office of the Solicitor General so that other avenues to protect the property may be done.
Meantime, if I should err, let me do so with deference to the protection of the land for the benefit of the entire Baguio City constituency.
In a letter dated June 22, 2021, our office was informed by the Department of Agriculture Regional Field Office – Cordillera that last May 2021, certain individuals tried to survey portions of the Baguio Stock Farm covered by Proclamation No. 603, Series 1940.
Elements of the Bureau of Animal Industry barred them from doing so.
Proclamation No. 603, Series 1940 reserved said land for animal breeding purposes of the national government.
Intrusion upon said reservation happened anew, June 2021, when a group of men led by one Mailed Molina, were claiming portions of the reservation for private purposes, based on a purported land claim by the heirs of Ikang Paus.
While these intrusions were happening, officials and employees of the Department of Agriculture reportedly received threats of harm.
We cannot allow and we are not allowing these.
There are no indications that portions of the reservation had been reclassified to allow private ownership. More importantly, these purported land claims have placed the Baguio Stock Farm under dangers of irreversible destruction.
For the foregoing reasons, I am tasking the Baguio City Police Office to secure the Baguio Stock Farm from unwanted intrusions; and, to ensure no intimidation of any form reaches those who only seek to defend it. Make apprehensions, if need be, and file the proper cases in court.
The validity of titles and claims of private individuals in the area are now being determined before a local court. Allow the case to take its natural flow. In this regard, I am tasking the City Legal Office to coordinate with Office of the Solicitor General so that other avenues to protect the property may be done.
Meantime, if I should err, let me do so with deference to the protection of the land for the benefit of the entire Baguio City constituency.
BENJAMIN
B. MAGALONG
City Mayor
***
The Baguio Dairy Farm had been a controversial issue in this summer capital over the years.
The City Legal Office and the City Social Welfare and Development Office have confirmed hundreds of informal settlers intruded into the 8-hectare lot ceded to the city government by the Dept. of Agriculture for the city’s priority projects.
Lawyer Rheenan Diwas earlier told the regular management committee in a meeting presided by Mayor Magalong that informal settlers belonging to the Cordillera Knights of the Old Cove, an urban poor association in the city whose members were owners of structures earlier demolished by the local government a few years ago had returned and built structures.
This was confirmed by a CSWDO report noting significant increase in the number of informal settlers in the area since demolition of illegal structures temporarily stopped following restraining orders issued by local courts.
Diwas admitted three lots having a total land area of over eight hectares ceded to the city government for public use was squatted upon by an increasing number of informal settlers, thus the need to stop further intrusions of this will complicate problems of the city over the area.
Earlier, the Municipal Trial Court in Cities Branch 2 issued a special demolition order for dismantling 344 illegal structures at the site but some property owners secured restraining orders that spared the big structures from being demolished up to date.
CSWD Officer Betty Fangasan, in a report said there were 147 shanties discovered in the area built with light materials.
Of the said number of illegal structures, 112 were occupied by families while 35 were unoccupied whose owners reportedly only visit the area during meetings as some of them reportedly own houses in other parts of the city.
Fangasan said areas where structures have been erected were hazardous and pose serious threat to the safety of people living in the temporary shanties.
Mayor Magalong said the city government urgently needs the lot for projects needing substantial spaces, specifically the waste-to-energy project needing a total land area of 2.6 hectares and the proposed south-bound bus terminal requiring four hectares.
The Dairy Farm is indeed a sticky issue for the city government considering numerous legal cases over the area which have yet to be resolved by the courts.
City Mayor
***
The Baguio Dairy Farm had been a controversial issue in this summer capital over the years.
The City Legal Office and the City Social Welfare and Development Office have confirmed hundreds of informal settlers intruded into the 8-hectare lot ceded to the city government by the Dept. of Agriculture for the city’s priority projects.
Lawyer Rheenan Diwas earlier told the regular management committee in a meeting presided by Mayor Magalong that informal settlers belonging to the Cordillera Knights of the Old Cove, an urban poor association in the city whose members were owners of structures earlier demolished by the local government a few years ago had returned and built structures.
This was confirmed by a CSWDO report noting significant increase in the number of informal settlers in the area since demolition of illegal structures temporarily stopped following restraining orders issued by local courts.
Diwas admitted three lots having a total land area of over eight hectares ceded to the city government for public use was squatted upon by an increasing number of informal settlers, thus the need to stop further intrusions of this will complicate problems of the city over the area.
Earlier, the Municipal Trial Court in Cities Branch 2 issued a special demolition order for dismantling 344 illegal structures at the site but some property owners secured restraining orders that spared the big structures from being demolished up to date.
CSWD Officer Betty Fangasan, in a report said there were 147 shanties discovered in the area built with light materials.
Of the said number of illegal structures, 112 were occupied by families while 35 were unoccupied whose owners reportedly only visit the area during meetings as some of them reportedly own houses in other parts of the city.
Fangasan said areas where structures have been erected were hazardous and pose serious threat to the safety of people living in the temporary shanties.
Mayor Magalong said the city government urgently needs the lot for projects needing substantial spaces, specifically the waste-to-energy project needing a total land area of 2.6 hectares and the proposed south-bound bus terminal requiring four hectares.
The Dairy Farm is indeed a sticky issue for the city government considering numerous legal cases over the area which have yet to be resolved by the courts.
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