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.