POOR fisherfolk of Bonuan can find great cause for rejoicing in the decision of City Hall thru Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr. to cancel all tax declarations issued to individuals covering foreshorelands in the city.

This is a move long overdue since the previous city administrations to include not just the immediate past rule of Mayor Benjamin S. Lim but also that of Fernandez himself in his earlier term of office before he was plucked from the city to assume national posts one after the other under President Arroyo.

Media, including this newspaper, had gone to town in past years reporting on the illegal mass “titling” of the Bonuan foreshoreland, mainly by a syndicate from Baguio and parts of Ilocos that sold to lot seekers alleged Certificates of Alienability and Disposability purportedly issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources over the years. Nothing however seemed to deter the syndicate from its “landgrabbing.” It continued parceling off and selling beach lots like there was no tomorrow.

Armed with these spurious certificates and in some instances with tax declarations from the City Assessors’ Office, the new lot owners proceeded to fence off properties in the area, virtually staking their claim on city property.

This naturally made the local fishermen’s access to the sea, their only source of livelihod difficult as their usual passage to the beach was unduly hampered by big, bold signages of “No Tresspassing.”

It now looks like Mayor Fernandez, on his new term of office, backed by the city engineer’s own research on the land ownerships and the city legal office’s resolute positioning has called the illegal occupants’ bluff of going to court if they are disturbed from their properties.

We daresay the city stands on solid (beach) ground on this.

This is the stuff of which good governance is made: Refusing to be intimidated and taking positive action in the name of the greater majority– not the pr