Who owns Cauit Island, Cebu?
On May 9, 2008, then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo issued Proclamation No. 1505, it amended Executive Order No. 43 dated October 25, 1904 which reserved Cauit Island, Cebu, for the use of quarantine service and the marine hospital service and the Chief Quarantine Office, by declaring the area as alienable and disposable and transferring its administration and ownership from the Department of Health to the city government of Cebu to form part of the Cebu South Reclamation Project.
The Executive Order mentioned by then President Arroyo was issued by then Governor Luke E. Wright, the Civil Governor of the Philippine Islands. Executive Order 2649 was issued on October 25, 1904 setting aside and reserving Cauit, Province of Cebu, "for the use of the Quarantine Service and the Marine Hospital Service."
In conjunction with the Executive Order of Governor Wright, the United States Congress approved on August 29, 1916 that all property and rights which may have been acquired in the Philippine Islands by the United States under the Treaty of Peace with Spain, except such land or other property as has been or shall be designated by the President of the United States for military and other reservations of the Government of the United States, was placed under the control of the government of the islands, to be administered or disposed for the benefit of the inhabitants thereof.
Then on June 28, 1917, then US President Woodrow Wilson (Cebu City honors the 28th president of the United States, from 1913 to 1921 with a street in Lahug, Cebu City) designated, confirmed, and set aside the Island of Cauit, Cebu, for use as a quarantine station under the Treasury Department of the United States.
Cauit is one of the 167 islands and islets of Cebu. It contains an area of 39,854 square meters. It was the Cebuano geodetic engineer Edgar T. Batiquin who conducted the reclamation survey on November 7, 2005 and it was approved on February 10, 2006.
Aside from the Cauit Island that forms part of the South Reclamation Project, former president Arroyo also issued Proclamation No. 84-3 dated May 16, 2005 amending Proclamation No. 200-A dated May 22, 1967. It transferred the ownership of the areas of Tangke, Talisay City, to the South Reclamation Project and declared the area as alienable and disposable.
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