Officials of Masbate, a province in the Bicol Region, have cried foul over the claims of jurisdiction of La Manok Island by officials of Daanbantayan, a northern town in Cebu.
Vice Mayor Ramon Arreglo Diamos of Esperanza town in Masbate where La Manok Island is closest to, said in a phone interview on Tuesday that their municipal council would pass a resolution asking Daanbantayan officials to stop claiming the islet.
Diamossaid that they had all documentary evidence to claim jurisdiction over La Manok, which lies 14 kilometers away from the shoreline of Esperanza.
Diamos , who was then the mayor of Esperanza during the delineation of the National Mapping Resources and Information Agency (Namria) in May 2002, maintains that La Manok had been considered as a part of Masbate even before the delineation.
In documents forwarded to Cebu Daily News, Diamos cited geographical distance, DENR documents and previous rulings of Namria as evidence that the islet is covered in the 15-km waters of Esperanza, Masbate.
Diamos pointed out that there had been an instance in the past when a resident of Masbate applied for a permit at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Central Visayas (DENR 7) to develop the islet into an ecotourism site, but the agency referred the applicant to DENR in Region 5 due to “lack of jurisdiction” over the islet.
However, Daanbantayan Mayor Vicente Loot said that the geographical distance of the islet would not be the only factor to consider in the jurisdiction issue.
Loot said that the islet belonged to the same shelf as that of the mainland Cebu, and thus, it should be part of Cebu province despite the distance.
Diamos, for his part, said that he was open to the suggestion of Cebu Board Member Sun Shimura for the governors of Masbate and Cebu to talk this over and settle this jurisdiction dispute.
Loot also said that it would be better if the issue should be taken up by the governors to solve the dispute.
When sought for comment, however, Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III refused to give any comment about the La Manok issue.
Davide said he would just wait for any official communication about the matter.
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