A NEW ‘MAYORA’ ON CAMPUS Taguig City Mayor Lani Cayetano arrives for a “Brigada Eskwela” cleanup activity on Tuesday, August 15, at Tibagan Elementary School, a campus in one of the 10 barangays transferred to her city’s jurisdiction from neighboring Makati City under a Supreme Court ruling on their boundary dispute. INQUIRER file photo / RICHARD A. REYES
MANILA, Philippines — The Taguig City government on Thursday welcomed the creation of a Department of Education (DepEd) transition committee, saying it ends its dispute with Makati City concerning the 14 public schools affected by the transfer of several barangays (villages) from Makati City to Taguig City.
“[DepEd Sec. and Vice President Sara Duterte’s] decision to immediately form a Transition Committee without the need for a Writ of Execution, a move that was welcomed by [Makati] Mayor [Abby] Binay herself, puts an end to that issue and allows all parties to move forward for the benefit of the community,” said the Taguig government in a statement.
Taguig clarified that the local government does not need a Writ of Execution to exercise jurisdiction over Fort Bonifacio Military Reservation consisting og parcels 3 and 4 of Psu-2031, citing Supreme Court ruling.
Under the Supreme Court’s final decision, Parcels 3 and 4 of Psu-2031, which comprises the 10 barangays, belong to Taguig.
The preliminary injunction issued by the regional trial court of Pasig, stopping Makati from exercising jurisdiction over, making improvements on, or treating as part of its territory, Parcels 3 and 4, is made permanent.
Taguig said “these two dispositions are self-executing. The nature and tenor of the permanent injunction against Makati do not require a writ of execution for the decision to be implemented.”
It added that it looks forward to crafting a transition plan with DepEd and all relevant government agencies.
“With DepEd order 023 series of 2023, which specifically lists the collation of ‘transition documents’ as a priority, we hope to finally receive the data that we had been requesting from Makati that would allow Taguig to extend assistance to those affected more effectively,” it said.
The Taguig government welcomed Binay’s commitment to work with the transition team to end the dispute further.
“With this, we fully expect that this will put an end to the constant stream of misleading public pronouncements that have been coming out, and which serves no other purpose than to create confusion and anxiety at a time when we should be calming the public,” the city government said.
The issue stemmed from a Supreme Court decision that declared that Taguig has the rightful jurisdiction over Fort Bonifacio Military Reservation — where Bonifacio Global City and several barangays are located — and not Makati.
Tensions flared after Taguig City announced taking over all the public schools in barangays affected by the Supreme Court decision on the boundary dispute between the two cities.
But the Makati City government claimed that the 14 public schools in Barangays Pembo, Comembo, Cembo, South Cembo, West Rembo, East Rembo, and Pitogo — collectively known as Embo — were still under its jurisdiction.
To resolve the issue, DepEd announced the creation of a transition committee composed of representatives from the Deped and the cities of Taguig and Makati overseeing a transition plan on Wednesday.
It also affirmed that the opening of classes in the affected public schools would not be deferred despite the dispute.
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