Antique’s ‘borrowed island’ returned to Oriental Mindoro

BOUNDARY SET Liwagao Island, which features white sand beaches and is home to more than 600 people, is back to the jurisdiction of Bulalacao town in Oriental Mindoro following a court ruling. —PHOTO COURTESY OF BULALACAO LGU

CITY OF CALAPAN, Oriental Mindoro, Philippines — Oriental Mindoro officials are taking over the jurisdiction and care of Liwagao Island after a court issued a 30-page ruling that returned the island to the jurisdiction of Bulalacao town after years of dispute with Caluya town in Antique province.

The ruling, issued on Aug. 19 by the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 43 in Roxas town, recognized that Liwagao “is within the territorial, political and administrative jurisdiction of the municipality of Bulalacao, Oriental Mindoro.”

This 114-hectare island, featuring a long stretch of white sand beach, is a subvillage of Barangay Maasin in Bulalacao, as declared by Presidential Decree No. 1801, signed by then President Ferdinand Marcos on Nov. 10, 1978.But this became a subject of a dispute after the Antique provincial board issued Resolution No. 142-2012 which cited public records and documents to support its claim over the island.

The resolution said an original certificate of title, numbered 42891 and issued by the Register of Deeds to Joaquin Lim, identified the island as part of Barangay Sibolo in Caluya town.

The resolution also cited Commission on Elections records which contained names of residents from Liwagao who were registered voters of Barangay Sibolo and the names of elected village leaders of Sibolo who were residents of Liwagao.

It added a map from the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority which showed Sitio Liwagao to be geographically part of Antique.

Solving crime

In 2012, the provincial government of Oriental Mindoro filed a case to claim the island, citing a testimony from former Caluya Mayor Oscar Lim which said that he “borrowed” Liwagao from then Bulalacao Mayor Dolores Bago for the purpose of solving rampant piracy and cattle rustling in Caluya.

Lim said criminals were using Liwagao Island as their hideout and law enforcers from Antique could not get to them because it was beyond their jurisdiction.

“Sometime between 1978 and 1979, Dolores Bago, then mayor of Bulalacao, Oriental Mindoro, verbally agreed to [lend] the island to Oscar Lim, then mayor of Caluya, Antique. Oscar promised to return the island once his term of office ended …

She (the municipal assessor in her testimony to the court) claims in 1987, Oscar came to Bulalacao to turn over the island to Guillermo Salas Jr., then mayor of Bulalacao, successor of Dolores,” the court said.

It also considered the public declaration of former Mayor Lim during the joint session of the provincial boards of Oriental Mindoro and Antique in Kalibo, Aklan, on Nov. 24, 2005, where Lim even requested the Antique board to return the island to the petitioners.

The court said no official from Antique prevented Lim when he “borrowed and returned” the island to Bulalacao.

Acting Presiding Judge Erwin Dimayacyac, in the RTC ruling, ordered the municipality of Caluya and the province of Antique to “turn over Liwagao Island to the Municipality of Bulalacao and the Province of Oriental Mindoro, including all improvements and public structures therein.”

Peaceful takeover

“The efforts and teamwork of the provincial government, the municipality of Bulalacao and its people have paid off. This will already be part of history of our province,” Kristine Grace Suarez, the provincial legal officer during the 2012 claim of Bulalacao, said in an email to the Inquirer. Suarez is now a judge at the Quezon City Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 138.

Oriental Mindoro Rep. Alfonso Umali Jr., then provincial governor, said he recognized that the ruling could still be appealed.

“But at least we have moved forward,” Umali said.

Gov. Humerlito Dolor, then Umali’s vice governor and who joined Suarez and members of the provincial board in filing the claim in 2012, said he actively pursued the case despite the odds.

Dolor, at a recent press conference, said he wanted a “peaceful takeover of Liwagao.”

He met with Bulalacao Mayor Ernilo Villas and local officials last week to craft a “one-province strategy” for the island.

At the meeting, the officials decided to buy a sea ambulance and strengthen education and health services on the island that is home to more than 600 people.