MEMBERS of the La Trinidad Municipal Council has created an ad hoc committee to oversee reported land claims within the protected Puguis Communal Forest.
The commit was created following reports some unscrupulous individuals are applying for the titling of the 9.5 hectares despite opposition raised by Barangay Puguis and the Municipal Government.
Councilor Nestor Fongwan Jr. during Tuesday’s council session filed the resolution creating the ad hoc team to conduct a study and make recommendations on all matters pertaining to that parcel of lot adjacent to the Puguis Communal Forest.
The ad hoc committee will be led by lawyer Jennifer Fianza and Engineers Vicente Perez, Emerson Tabernero, Patrick Concepcion and Benedict Pineda. The team will make a weekly report to Mayor Romeo Salda and the Sangguniang Bayan Office on the reported land grabbing at the communal forest.
Fongwan also requested to Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Regina Lopez to immediately intervene and issue appropriate directives to facilitate the documentation of the land.
At the same time Fongwan also requested for the eventual declaration of the land as part of the forest reserve for its protection and conservation.
In 2005, a joint survey was conducted by technical personnel from the municipality and DENR-CAR for the re-establishment of the metes and bounds of the Puguis Communal Forest located at Barangay Puguis based on Proclamation No. 772 and Cadastral Survey LC Map No. 3049.
With the adoption of the survey plan, barangay and the municipal officials, together with the technical persons involved in the survey conducted a walk through along the newly delineated boundary lines of the forest.
The group found out a wide forested area was excluded and were told that the same is outside of the newly established monuments.
Alarmed with the apparent exclusion of substantial portion of the long identified communal forest, officials have created Resolution No. 142 – 2007 “Reconsidering Resolution No. 48-2006 entitled adopting and confirming the result of the survey of the Puguis Communal Forest which was conducted by the survey team composed of personnel from the DENR and CENRO based on proclamation No. 772 and cadastral survey resulting to an area of 485.892 sq. meters.”
Since 2007, Puguis and the municipality have consistently pursued its position to the DENR-CAR that the portion of lot, being claimed now, is a part of the forest reserve.