DENR checking if Silot Bay fence within property limits

Iron rods and PVC pipes form part of a fence along Silot Bay in the poblacion of Lilo-an, north Cebu. The family of Democrito Mendoza said this was just a demarcation to warn people it was unsafe to swim there. (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Central Visayas sent a team to Silot Bay to check  whether the fencing of the area by the Mendozas is within  proper boundaries.

DENR Regional Executive Director Isabelo Montejo said that 92 hectares of the 100 hectares of Silot Bay is covered by the Supreme Court ruling awarding ownership of the area as a “natural fishpond to the family of Democrito Mendoza.

He said the DENR has to check if the fenced off area is within the family property.

The Mendozas operate the Papa Kits Marine Fishing and Lagoon resort there.

RESTRICTED

“The 92 hectares are privately owned lots. The owners can do anything with the area. The rest of the bay is owned by the public and they should not be restricted in using that area,” Montejo said.

Montejo cited the  Philippine Water Code  which provides that  the public must have free access to bays and bodies of water.

He said the case in Silot Bay was unique considering that it is a body of water that was eventually titled.

Fisherfolk and several   residents in Liloan town sought the help of the Cebu provincial government in recovering the  bay for public use.

Mendoza first applied for a fishpond permit for  part of Silot Bay and eventually got it titled after then President Ferdinand Marcos released a memorandum supporting  programs of the Department of Agriculture that included the development of fishponds.

Montejo said that when the DENR was established, their first efforts include the reversion of the titled bay of the  Mendoza family.  The DENR won the case in the  Regional Trial Court  but the decision was reversed in the Court of Appeals,  and became final  in a ruling of the  Supreme Court in  March of 2007.

But  Liloan residents and Liloan Mayor Vincent “Duke” Frasco said they could still challenge the outcome and petition for a review.

Cebu Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale said residents went to her office asking the help of the Provincial Legal Office (PLO) to dig up documents for the case.

“We are just assisting because they’re reading again the decision and the lawyers said there are still available remedies although we have to study the matter very well. We are behind the people and merely support what is just,” Magpale said.

Fishermen and residents staged a rally last Sunday and promised to continue it every weekend to protest the fencing of the bay where  PVC pipes and steel bars were installed since January.

Residents staged a rally while 1,200 residents signed a letter to President Aquino seeking an investigation into how the mendozas acquired lot titles over Silot Bay.

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