ITOGON, Benguet – The municipal government is urging the provincial board to issue the required certification to file action so that it will be able to bring to the court of law the eventual settlement of its boundary dispute with Bokod.
Mayor Bernard S. Waclin admitted that the boundary dispute between barangays Tinongdan in Itogon and Ambuclao in Bokod had been going on for a long time which deprived these barangays and the two municipalities of their commensurate share from the government’s National Tax Allocation (NATA) supposedly to be used to implement development projects and enhance the delivery of basic services to the people.
He claimed that based on the results of previous negotiations and consultations that had been called for by the provincial board to come up with possible amicable settlement to the boundary dispute, no concrete agreement had been reached by both parties because of the insistence of the barangay officials of Ambuclao to allegedly claim the whole disputed area.
Barangays Ambuclao and Tinongdan are involved in a dispute covering some 15,000 hectares of land within their respective jurisdiction over the past several decades which had not been settled thereby depriving the said barangays and the two municipalities of the NATA corresponding to the affected land area.
Mayor Waclin expressed disappointment over the fact that Tinongdan went to the extent of giving some 12,000 hectares to Ambuclao while the remaining 3,000 hectares of the disputed area will remain with the Itogon barangay but the former did not agree to the proposal that is why what is best is for the boundary dispute to be settled by the court of law so that the parties will be able to present their evidences showing who rightfully owns the disputed area.
According to him, Itogon officials are wondering why their counterparts in Ambuclao and Bokod seem not to agree with the earlier proposal which is obviously advantageous to their part that is why they are of the conclusion that they want to claim the whole disputed area which mostly is within Tinongdan’s jurisdiction.
The local chief executive pointed out that the municipal government is inclined to aggressively work for the settlement of all existing boundary disputes with neighboring towns so that the concerned local governments will be getting their rightful share from the NATA that would mean added funds to the localities to fund the implementation of their priority development projects and help in improving the delivery of basic services to their respective constituents.
The mayor stipulated that local governments must be reasonable in establishing their claims on properties that overlap with other localities so that it would be easier for the parties to agree on how to settle such disputes to avoid depriving other local governments of their due share from the government’s resources for their constituents.
Aside from its long-standing boundary dispute with Bokod, Itogon is also involved in a boundary dispute with Tuba town, especially the areas of operation of the Philex Mining Corporation which had been going on for decades that deprived the involved towns of their share from the taxes to be paid by the mining company to its host local governments.
