Friday, July 13, 2007 Sitoy orders probe on Shell Island titles
CORDOVA Mayor Adelino Sitoy ordered an investigation on reports that most of the area covered by shallow water around Shell Island was already issued titles by the Register of Deeds of Lapu-Lapu City.
“The place where it was issued was anomalous, not to mention the title itself. Why should Lapu-Lapu issue anything, when the island belongs to us?” he said.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is not aware of the report and assured it will conduct a separate investigation.
“Submerged land can never be titled because it belongs to the state. If there is such a title, we will file a petition to annul it,” said Loreto Rivac, chief of the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office.
Sitoy learned of the titling because of their efforts to strengthen their claim over all islets surrounding Cordova.
Shell Island, with income from Pilipinas Shell Inc., had helped Cordova’s transformation into a municipality from a mere barangay of Lapu-Lapu.
But the property is now the subject of conflicting claims from the DENR and Cordova.
Both say they are entitled to get the rentals (at P361,035 a year) from the Cebu Coliseum Complex, which took over the island in 1993 after Pilipinas Shell’s contract of occupancy expired. (AIV)
