UPMin land dispute sparked anew

The Barangay Council of Bago Oshiro is drawing up plan to discuss its territorial claim on the Davao City-UP Mindanao (UPMin) Sports Complex with the city council.
Territorial ownership over the DC-UP Min Sports Complex has been an ongoing public debate for residents of Brgy. Bago Oshiro and Brgy. Mintal, both in Tugbok District, for years now.
With the weeklong Davao Region Athletic Association (Davraa) 2019 held at the sports complex, the issue sparked anew.
In the Presidential Proclamation 822 issued by then President Fidel Ramos in 1996, the reserved 2,044,312 square-meter BPI Land Reservation for the use of UP is addressed to Brgy. Bago Oshiro.
“We are planning to ask the City Council to discuss the matter,” Bago Oshiro Barangay Captain Jonna Macarayog told TIMES.
According to Macarayog, it is “insulting” that Barangay Mintal gets the recognition as the address of the sports complex but Bago Oshiro is the one settling any problems arising in the particular place.
Back in 2015, a land dispute sparked wherein informal settlers in the area resisted the entry of the contractors in Manambulan road, leading to the then proposed Davao-UP sports complex in Sitio 117. Families have been in the area since 1936.
“All the problems, from census tagging up to assistance to the farmers, we at Bago Oshiro council act,” Macarayog said. “Then the recognition goes to Mintal.”
Macarayog also questioned why the university is using Barangay Mintal when other neighboring government agencies in the area are using Bago Oshiro as establishment address.
But Mintal Barangay Captain Rey Amador Bargamento said UPMin uses Mintal “because the land where UPMin stands is within Barangay Mintal.”
The land title, Bargamento clarified, is under Mintal.
“We know the boundary of our territory concerning UPMin,” Bargamento said.
“We don’t claim UPMin belongs to us… But UP, itself, said it belongs to Mintal.”