LUNA, Apayao – Anchored with its mission of safeguarding Apayao lands and its rightful owners, the Lawful and Unified initiatives in Safeguarding Apayao lands (Task force LUSA) on Tuesday recently resolved another disputed land properties in Luna, this time involving three parties.
Through the mediation of the free lawyers, concerned claimants were made to settle their problems and sign an agreement before the legal consultants and witnesses, putting an end to their conflict.
This is the 65th case deliberated in Luna town, successfully settled by the team, with the Municipal Assessor’s office providing assistance.
The contention between parties revolved around a particular 2 separate lots, both situated in Poblacion, Luna, wherein the first party has bought, occupied and has been utilizing parcels/portions from said lots for some time.
The second party, on the other hand, showed as the Atty-in-fact of the legal heirs, the daughter in law of the deceased and registered land title owner of one of the lots.
The controversy involved the issue of ownership for the subject lots.
Through the intervention of Task Force LUSA with the provisions of legal expertise of Atty. Julie Ann Salvador, Atty. Atty. Lean Klair Jan Gamatero, Atty. Ariestedes Singayan, and presiding focal person Roland Tamot, a mutual agreement was reached, binding parties involved into the agreed terms.
The TF LUSA, under the Provincial Governor’s Office (PGO), is one of Governor Elias C.Bulut Jr. core endeavors in resolving land issues affecting yApayaos. These include boundary disputes, questionable issuance of titles in forest zones, mismatch of title and property, land disputes, improper conduct of surveys, division of inheritance, missing deed of sale, and others.
There are about 96,000 registered real property units in Apayao, and said number may increase as more land disputes are resolved. Successful mediation is expected to contribute to an improved tax collection of real properties in the province.
In his previous statements, Governor Bulut underscored the urgency to expedite solutions to avoid future problems, “with the task force (LUSA), let’s fix land disputes now, narigat nu ipatawid tayo ti problema if we can solve them now. Mabalin tayo masolve ti possible cancer in the future nu isimpa tayun ti problema dagiti dagdaga,” he emphasized. By Arjay Baysa
