Mindanaotoday.com | Oro gov’t secures site for city college
By: URIEL QUILINGUING
The government of Cagayan de Oro has acquired legal rights over a 60-hectare land that would soon be the school campus of a city college by virtue of a contract of usufruct that was signed on Tuesday, September 19, this year.
With this, the construction of an administration building of the Cagayan de Oro City College (COCC) could commence before the year ends, while proposed four-year collegiate course offerings are being designed.
City Mayor Rolando Uy of the city government of Cagayan de Oro, Datu Roberto Cabaring of the Higaonon Cultural Communities of Dansolihon, and Director Jerie Ragsac of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) Misamis Oriental Provincial Office were the principal signatories of the usufruct document.
Uy, in his message after the signing rites, said he is overjoyed beyond measure that what used to be a dream is becoming a reality, in just a little over a year of his administration. He credited the realization to the Local School Board for pursuing the project.
He also thanked Vice Mayor Jocelyn Rodriguez and the members of the 20th City Council for granting him the authority, on behalf of the city government, to sign a contract of usufruct with the two other contracting parties, so that nobody should be left behind in collegiate education opportunities.
Article 562 of the Revised Penal Code describes usufruct as the right to enjoy the property of another with the obligation of preserving its form and substance, unless the title constituting it or the law otherwise provides.
Last week, the City Information Office reported that the mayor “may tap” professors from his alma mater, University of San Jose Recoletos (USJ-R) once the envisioned Cagayan de Oro City College (COCC) is operational by 2025.
Some of them, he said, are willing to “relocate” in Cagayan de Oro once given opportunities to be part of the COCC academic community.
Uy has appointed fellow USJ-R alumnus, Dr. Jestoni Babia as COCC interim president.
Vice Mayor Rodriguez, in “Ang Konseho Karon” online report, said they are in full support of the COCC because it will benefit residents of Dansolihon and other hinterland villages who wish to pursue college education, without the need to travel more than 20 kilometers down to the city proper.
Cabaring’s group was awarded by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources on January 15, 1998 a tenurial instrument known as Community-Based Forest Management Agreement (CBFMA) over a 600-hectare land, out of some 1,300 hectares the Higaonon tribal members claimed to be their ancestral domain.
NCIP Misamis Oriental was instrumental in facilitating the group’s CMFMA with the DENR, particularly in the compliance of documentary and reportorial requirements.
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