BUGUIAS, Benguet – A total of 15% of the total land area of Buguias are “alienable and disposable lands” covered by national laws and presidential proclamations declaring majority of the land in the municipality as national parks and watershed reservations.
Municipal Assessor George Batunan revealed this in a Kapihan sa Benguet forum held recently saying that the stretch of Mt Data National Park also covers this town which measures 100 meters from both side of Halsema Highway starting from Tublay, Benguet to Sabangan, Mt. Province.
Mayor Felicio Bayacsan together with the other municipal officials is following up the Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) already approved by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) now with the Land Registration Authority pending registration with the Register of Deeds (ROD).
In a separate interview, Recto Alawas of the NCIP said this town’s officials led by Bayacsan are planning to lobby at the LRA to fast track the papers at their end.
Moreover, Batunan explained that when the price of vegetables are down, farmers cannot use their tax declarations as loan collateral to big banks, as only rural banks accepts them. Hoping that their ancestral domain titles will be finally registered, they will focus next on the individual ancestral land titles, Batunan added.
Bayacsan confirmed that this is one of their priorities in Buguias, he explained that once their CADTs will be approved, it would be beneficial not only to vegetable farmers, but also to the whole municipality as well.
In the same forum, Municipal Budget Officer Editha Dao-anis defended their Revised Tax Revenue Code, that was recently hounded by some controversies. She explained that the new tax code is not excessive and followed all legal procedures, contrary to the claims that it was not published nor was there any public hearing.
Dao-Anis also confirmed that their tax collection for this year suffered a loss, after they have collected barely P3M out of their target tax collection of P8M, as many did not pay their taxes due to the controversies on the revised Tax Revenue Code.
Despite the issue, municipal officials of Buguias are hopeful that they will recover their losses once their Revised Revenue Code is implemented on October 1 .(Lito Dar/PIA)
