QuestionsQuestions (PROCLAMATION NO. 24)
It is issued pursuant to Section 1 of Act No. 3915, titled “An Act providing for the establishment of national parks, declaring such parks as game refuges, and for other purposes.”
The recommendation came from the Secretary of Agriculture and Commerce, Manila.
Administration is under the Bureau of Forestry, subject to the general executive control and supervision of the Secretary of Agriculture and Commerce.
The President withdraws the specified parcel of the public domain from sale, settlement, or other disposition, subject to private rights, if any.
The withdrawal from disposition is “subject to private rights, if any there be,” meaning existing private rights are not automatically extinguished by the proclamation.
In Bataan: Hermosa, Orani, Samal, Abucay, Balanga, Pilar, Bagac, and Moron; and in Zambales: the municipality of Subic.
North: southern boundary of Roosevelt National Park and certified Alienable and Disposable land; East: certified Alienable and Disposable land; South: U.S. Military Reservation and Bagac River; West: seacoast from Bagac River to Alilao River.
Approximately 31,400 hectares.
It indicates that the final metes and bounds and precise boundaries may be determined or refined through subsequent government survey and delimitation.
It does not create private ownership. Instead, it withdraws the designated public domain from sale, settlement, or other disposition, for park purposes.
It suggests that parts of the surrounding boundaries are public lands already classified as alienable and disposable; however, even if adjacent lands are A&D, the proclamation still reserves/withdraws the identified area for national park purposes.
It is specifically used as the southern boundary reference (“on the South by the U.S. Military Reservation and Bagac River”).
Signed by President Sergio Osmeña, and attested/issued by Jose S. Reyes as Secretary to the President.
It is “for park purposes for the benefit and enjoyment of the people of the Philippines.”
It cites Act No. 3915, which provides for national parks declaring them as game refuges; thus, the proclamation is part of that statutory framework.