MORE NEWS, IFUGAO

‘Before it’s too late’: Angara proposes master plan for restoration of rice terraces

BANAUE, Ifugao -- To preserve and bring back the natural grandeur of the Ifugao Rice Terraces, Sen. Edgardo J. Angara has filed a bill seeking to formulate a 10-year Cordillera Terraces Master Plan for the preservation and restoration of the Ifugao Rice Terraces.

"The Ifugao Rice Terraces is known worldwide as the 8th Wonder of the Old World and the country’s prime tourist destination. They are the living testament to the Ifugaos’ mastery of watershed ecology, terrace engineering, and water distribution. Unfortunately, the condition of the terraces has continuously deteriorated," Angara said.

In 2001, it was placed in the World Heritage List in Danger.

The Ifugao Rice Terraces and Cultural Heritage Office cited several factors causing the deterioration.

These are: 1) loss of biodiversity due to biopiracy, unregulated hunting and indiscriminate use of new technology and introduction of new species; 2) reduced farm labor due to increasing out-migration of farm labor force; 3) erosion and siltation due to destruction of watershed; 4) land use conversion and abandonment of rice terraces due to damaged rice terraces; and 5) insufficient irrigation water supply, limited income from rice farming, shift in values and priorities of the people, unregulated land use and physical planning.

Angara said the major components of the 10-year Cordillera Terraces Master Plan are the restoration of the terraces, the protection and maintenance of ecological balance, the rehabilitation of the age-old irrigation systems, and massive reforestation.

"This bill is a first step towards an overall terraces management and preservation strategy with the end in view of establishing a permanent, efficient, and effective body to coordinate and lead efforts to safeguard, restore, and protect the Terraces of the entire Cordillera Region," he said.

The Ifugao Rice Terraces significantly forms part of the Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordillera, whose terraces and culture were inscribed in the World Heritage list in December 1995 under the category "living cultural landscape" having both natural and cultural characteristics of outstanding universal significance.

"The terraces of the Cordilleras are truly a rare engineering achievement, and the Philippines is racing, nay scrambling, against time to save them from deterioration," he added.


Lagawe hires 40 persons to clean the town streets
By Mhars B. Lihgawon

LAGAWE, Ifugao – Forty jobs were created by the municipal government to implement the clean and green program of the municipality.

Mayor Ceasar Cabbigat said the 40 job orders will maintain the cleanliness of the poblacion including some adjacent barangays of this municipality.

“The 30 of them will act as street sweepers while the 10 would be garbage collectors,” he said. “I asked them not just to clean but to plant flowers along the highways to add color to the environment.”

Cabbigat added barangay captains in the poblacion agreed to maintain cleanliness in their respective areas by providing garbage cans along the highway.

In addition, the LGU is pushing the strict implementation of the dog and “moma” spitting ordinances.

The mayor revealed that more than 100 violators of the “moma” spitting ordinance were cornered by LGU personnel and law enforcers here.

According to the ordinance, a violator will pay a fine of P50 and P100 for the first and second offense while for the third time a P250 fine and to render a four hour community service..


1st defense witness testifies at hearing on Campbell case
By Juan B. Dait Jr.

BANAUE, Ifugao — The trial on the murder of US Peace Corps Volunteer Julia Campbell resumed April April 8 at the refurbished old Banaue Municipal Hall, the new location of Regional Trial Court’s Branch 34 which is hearing the case, with the defense panel presenting its first witness, the police officer who accompanied the self-confessed killer from Baguio City to Ifugao.

PO3 Arnold Dalluyon, an uncle of the accused, Juan Donald Duntugan, testified in court that Duntugan voluntarily surrendered to him on April 26, 2007 from his hiding place at km 6 on Asin Road, Baguio City and that he brought him on the same day to Ifugao on an ABS-CBN vehicle via Halsema Road passing Benguet and Mt. Province.
The hearing last Tuesday was significant because it was the first anniversary of the murder of Julia Campbell in Barangay Batad, this town, where she had gone on April 6, 2006 with some friends to view the rice terraces in that area.

Campbell’s body was found by police 10 days later at a shallow grave some 200 meters from Batad proper.

Linda Campbell, Julia’s mother, was present at last Tuesday’s trial.

A resident of Fairfax, Virginia, US, Linda Campbell sat silently during the entire proceedings. She was accompanied by Julia’s best friend, Kristine Wale.

The two defense lawyers, Pedro Mayam-o and Eugene Ballitang, told this writer that they would present two more witnesses before the defense rests its case.

The two witnesses to be presented upon the resumption of the hearing are Emiliano Blas, who reportedly is a personal enemy of Duntugan, and Ambet Limmid, a businesswoman who owned the bag which Duntogan carried when he was bumped by Julia Campbell when she tried to overtake him on a narrow Batad pathway.
Earlier, the prosecution concluded its case against the accused.

In the hearing held at the RTC Branch 34 sala in Lagawe at the Justice Hall, the last prosecution witness, reporter Jay Ruiz of the ABS-CBN TV Network, testified that he had documented the confession of the suspect Juan Donald Duntugan, and that he accompanied Duntugan from Baguio to Ifugao together with PO3 Arnold Dalluyon.

This, as the prosecution in the Julia Campbell murder trial expressed confidence that the accused killer of the 40-year-old US Peace Corps volunteer would be convicted.
The formal murder trial ended Wednesday at the Banaue Regional Trial Court.

“I expect that the court would give a guilty verdict in June based on the evidence and testimony we have presented,” said Dean Reynaldo Agranzamendez Sr., the lead private prosecutor.

Defendant Juan Donald Duntugan’s lawyers, Pedro Mayam-o and Eugene Ballitang, wrapped up their case after presenting only one witness in the last hearing the other day.

Banaue Judge Ester Piscoso-Flor set the promulgation of the case on June 30.
The 25-year-old accused would be sentenced either to homicide – as the defense team has insisted – or murder for which he was tried.

Ifugao provincial prosecutor Joseph Tumapang and the four-man private prosecution team from the Baguio City-based Agranzamendez, Liceraldo, Gallardo and Associates Law firm led by Agranzamendez are confident that the evidence and witnesses they had presented would lead to Duntugan’s murder conviction.

When the Campbell murder trial resumed last April 8, it took the defense only two days to wrap up its case and presented only one witness, PO3 Arnold Dalluyon of the Banaue police.

The court ordered the prosecution and defense to submit their memoranda by May 9, or 30 days after the last hearing last Wednesday. – With a report from CL