Environment and Natural Resources USec. Ernesto Adobo, Jr. has ordered an immediate investigation into the awarding of 13 hectares of La Trinidad ancestral lands to the Benguet State University through a presidential proclamation.

Presidential Proclamation 637 signed by former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2004 ceded 13 hectares claimed by ancestral land claimants for a BSU housing project.

In a memorandum, Adobo directed the regional executive director of the DENR to conduct the investigation.

The DENR official ordered the investigation based on a petition of Barangay Wangal residents for the recall of the Arroyo proclamation that segregated the 13-hectare lot from the coverage of the BSU and reserved this as site for its faculty and staff housing.

Barangay Wangal residents said the proclamation was issued without consultation with the people of La Trinidad as well as with barangay, municipal and provincial officials.

They added the proposed housing site would affect an important water source for La Trinidad.

Earlier, Mayor Gregorio Abalos, Jr. has created a committee to investigate if the former president was misled in awarding 13 hectares of land to BSU’s faculty members and retired employees.

“The committee is expected to wrap up its findings within this month,” he said. 

He said the findings of the committee would also be the basis for a categorical decision in addressing the issue of building permit applications inside the awarded lot.

Marcelo Abela, president of the La Trinidad Indigenous Peoples Organization, said portions of the intended housing site were supposed to have been released to ancestral land owners under Presidential Proclamation 209 in 1955.

His group called on President Benigno Aquino III to cancel the May 21, 2004 proclamation.

Municipal Legal Officer Mauricio Cating, Jr. said there was no ascertaining if the proposed housing site is covered by Proclamation 209 because of the lack of a sketch plan.

Cating’s team said it needed to look into the national archives as well as the DENR central office to obtain documents that led to the issuance of PD 637, as well as the sketch plan annexed to the proclamation.