MALACAÑAN PALACE
MANILA
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES
[ Proclamation No. 1498, September 11, 1975 ]
RESERVING FOR SETTLEMENT PURPOSES UNDER THE ADMINISTRATION AND DISPOSITION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRARIAN REFORM CERTAIN PARCELS OF LAND OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN SITUATED IN THE MUNICIPALITIES OF DUPAX, PROVINCE OF NUEVA VIZCAYA AND MADDELA, PROVINCE OF QUIRINO, ISLAND OF LUZON, PHILIPPINES
WHEREAS, in this period of national reconstruction (economic and industrial) and global oil crisis, all projects be it public or private which generate energy for industrial and commercial use must be preserved and be operational at all times;
WHEREAS, statistics and past experiences show that during the summer months, the power output of these government projects are quite low thereby causing occasional electrical brownouts in some sector of Luzon and the principal cause of this power shortage is the lack of sufficient water necessary to generate electrical tribunes and household electrical power;
WHEREAS, it is of public knowledge that there are thousands of occupants, legal or illegal in the Ambuklao-Biñga Watershed areas, who have been there for quite a number of years and their method of land utilization for agricultural purposes has been the principal cause of the denudation of the reservation of its natural water conservation agents such as trees and other natural vegetation, soil erosion, floods during the rainy months and low water, supply during summer, including the continuous accumulation of silts on the river reservoirs;
WHEREAS, it is high time that the government adopts measures and make immediate steps to clear the Ambuklao-Biñga watershed reservations and all watershed reservations for the matter in the Philippines of occupants;
WHEREAS, on the other hand, it is believed that it is the moral obligation of government to relocate these occupants and provide them with lands to till;
WHEREAS, there is a big tract of public Iand both classified and unclassified, consisting of FORTY THOUSAND (40,000) HECTARES in the municipalities of Dupax, Province of Nueva Vizcaya, and Maddela, Province of Quirino, which is found suited for the purpose by the Department of Agrarian Reform and likewise recommended by the provincial governments of Benguet, Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino as the relocation site of the displaced and/or to be displaced occupants families of the Ambuklao-Biñga watershed areas and landless residents of Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino who may wish to settle in the said settlement project.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, upon recommendation of the Secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform, after consultation with the Secretary of Natural Resources, by virtue of the powers in me vested by the Constitution do hereby reserve, for settlement purposes under administration and disposition of the Department of Agrarian Reform subject to private rights, if any there be, and to future classification and survey, certain parcels of land more particularly described as follows:
A PARCEL OF LAND (part of the public domain), situated in the Municipality of Maddela and Dupax, Provinces of Quirino and Nueva Vizcaya, respectively. Bounded on the North by public land; on the East, by public land and Cagayan and Casecuan Rivers; on the South and West, by the National Irrigation Administration Watershed Reservation. Beginning at point marked “1” on plan, which is on the intersection of Cagayan River and Conwap River;
thence in southerly direction following the Casecuan River going upstream 11,500 meters to point “2”;
thence N. 53 deg. 45' W; 3,500 meters to point “3”;
thence S. 58 deg. 30’ W; 2,100 meters to point “4”;
thence N. 69 deg. 00’ W; 2,500 meters to point “5”;
thence N. 27 deg. 30’ W; 2,800 meters to point “6”;
thence S. 58 deg. 58’ W; 3,800 meters to point “7”;
thence S. 35 deg. 00’ W; 1,900 meters to point “8”;
thence S. 24 deg. 30' W; 2,000 meters to point “9”;
thence S. 67 deg. 00' W; 1,500 meters to point “10”;
thence S. 17 deg. 00' W; 3,400 meters to point “11”;
thence N. 58 deg. 30' W; 2,000 meters to point “12”;
thence N. 16 deg. 30' E; 2,300 meters to point “13”;
thence N. 56 deg. 30' W; 900 meters to point “14”;
thence due North; 2,800 meters to point “15”;
thence N. 48 deg. 30' W; 2,200 meters to point “16”;
thence N. 20 deg. 00’ E; 1,700 meters to point “17”;
thence N. 65 deg. 30’ E; 3,000 meters to point “18”;
thence N. 31 deg. 00’ W; 1,600 meters to point “19”;
thence N. 4 deg. 00’ W; 4,000 meters to point “20”;
thence N. 45 deg. 30’ W; 1,900 meters to point “21”;
thence N. 85 deg. 00’ W; 2,000 meters to point “22”;
thence N. 39 deg. 30’ W; 4,600 meters to point “23”;
thence N. 40 deg. 30’ E; 4,500 meters to point “24”;
thence S. 85 deg. 00’ E; 11,100 meters to point “25”;
thence in a Southeasterly direction following the Addelen River going downstream 9,600 meters to point “26”;
thence S. 18 deg. 30’ E; 17,550 meters to the point of beginning;
containing an approximate area of Forty Thousand (40,000) Hectares, more or less.1aшphi1
The Department of Agrarian Reform, with the assistance of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the provincial government of Benguet and the municipalities concerned, together with the National Power Corporation and the Department of Social Welfare, shall provide facilities and equipment including funding requirements which will be necessary for the transfer of the resettlement site including the construction of roads and bridges and bunk houses, if necessary. The Department of Agrarian Reform, however, will administer the settlement and dispose the lots therein pursuant to the provisions of Republic Act No. 3844, as amended and hereby allowed to cut, collect and dispose of timber stand in the area for its use in the development of the settlement, subject to forestry rules and regulations governing the matter.
Likewise, the Department of Natural Resources through the Bureau of Forest Development, under this proclamation is hereby instructed to immediately reclassify the said parcels of land into alienable and disposable, and thereafter, turn over the same to the Department of Agrarian Reform for disposition.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the Republic of the Philippines to be affixed.
Done in the City of Manila, in the year of our Lord this 11 day of September nineteen hundred and seventy-five.
(Sgd.) FERDINAND E. MARCOS
President of the Philippines
By the President:
(Sgd.) ROBERTO V. REYES
Acting Executive Secretary
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