Staff reporter
LAOAG CITY—The Sangguniang
Panlalawigan (SP) appealed to the municipalities of Vintar and Bangui in the
province’s first district to settle amicably a boundary dispute covering more
than 1,000 hectares.
SP member Da Vinci Crisostomo
said both municipalities, represented by Vintar mayor Larissa Foronda and
Bangui mayor Fidel Cimatu, have a claim for the contested lots located under cadastral
survey 734-D covering an area of 1,049.9621 square meters.
In a letter forwarded to both
concerned municipalities, Gwendolyn Bambalan, assistant director for technical
services of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources based in San Fernando
City, La Union clarified that on December 9, 1995, there was a memorandum of
agreement signed by the former local chief executives and Sangguniang Bayan
members of each town resolving the jurisdictional areas of both localities.
Based on the documents, Ms.
Bambalan said the 1995 MOA favored Bangui town but the Vintar officials alleged
there were some “discrepancies” or misrepresentations that happened during the
signing of the MOA as shown in an affidavit of then Vintar mayor Antonio
Foronda.
As the Sangguniang
Panlalawigan is responsible in the resolution of political boundary conflict as
stated under Section 118 of Republic Act No. 7160 or the Local Government code
of 1991, Mr. Crisostomo, in his capacity as chairperson of the committee on laws
hopes that both parties will just settle amicably instead of undergoing the
tedious process of court proceedings to resolve the issue.
Following a series of two
meetings held at the Provincial Session Hall, Mr. Crisostomo said another
meeting has been set early January 2018 to finally decide on what is best way
to settle the contested area.
To date, Vintar town has the
largest land area in Ilocos Norte’s first district with a total of 61,434
hectares while Bangui has 10,247 hectares.
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