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Tuesday, May 02, 2006
It cam be solved under 1967 ordinance, says Joy
Councilor Jocelyn Pesquera said all boundary conflicts should reckon to the 1967 Cebu City ordinance that delineates the technical descriptions of the boundaries of each of the 80 City barangays.
Since the ordinance has not yet been amended, she said the Feuding barangays should not expect to have their boundaries changed. They should simply have the demarcations re-located.
The barangays could do this by asking the help of the City Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro). The City Council will confirm the result.
Vice Mayor Michael Rama, in an ABS-CBN report, said the City Council will resolve the matter carefully, and maintained that it is premature for Lahug Barangay Captain Mary Ann de los Santos to allege that her barangay is being harassed.
This as Cebu city planning officer Paul Villarete, in a telephone interview, said he will present his evaluation and recommendations on Lahug’s boundary problem with Barangay Camputhaw to the City Council tomorrow.
Recommendations
Asked how he comes up with his recommendations, Villarete said evaluation will be on the basis of equity as far as services rendered, taxes, per capita income, location, and electoral distribution are concerned.
“This is just technical recommendation. The bottom line is that it is a political determination,” he said.
Pesquera said that unless there is compelling reason to change the boundaries, there is no reason for the barangays not to follow the 1967 ordinance.
She said Barangay Apas could not use the zoning ordinance as basis in determining boundaries since its map is just for tax collection purposes.
Boundary disagreements recently surfaced with the opening of Marco Polo Plaza Hotel in Nivel Hills, which both Lahug and Apas are claiming.
Although the City’s website map showed that Nivel Hills, the Asiatown IT Park in the old Lahug Airport, Waterfront Hotel and Casino, Grand Convention Center, and Park Lane Hotel are within Lahug’s territory, Mayor Tomas Osmeña has a different opinion.
Showdown
The mayor has no power under the Code to set boundaries, but the mayor wanted to give Nivel Hills and the old Lahug airport to Apas, where Waterfront and the Grand Convention Center are situated, to Barangay Luz, and Park Lane Hotel to Camputhaw.
“It will be a showdown,” if the City council will give an adverse opinion, the mayor warned.
Pesquera, who in the past drew Osmeña’s ire because of differing opinions, declined to comment on the remark, saying she has yet to hear it spoken by the mayor.
The Local Government Code avers that boundary disputes among local government units should be, “as much as possible,” resolved amicably.
The same is true for barangays disagreeing over their boundaries.
The Code also says that it is the council of either the city or the municipality that should settle or formally try the conflict.
Tax shares
In Cebu City, it is not only Lahug that has tangled with its neighbors in the North District. Lahug is at odds with Barangays Apas, Busay, Luz, and Camputhaw in the north, and Kalunasan in the South District.
San Nicolas Proper has also complained that tax shares it is supposed to get went to neighboring Calamba.
Several establishments, which were within its territory based on the old maps, got permits from Calamba and Labangon.
These barangays, through separate resolutions, have formally asked the City Council to resolve their problem.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (May 2, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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