LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

Of trees and mine explorations
MARCH L. FIANZA

Two topics caught our attention over the weekend. One, a forest inside Baguio is being threatened by the proposed construction of a building on an area where more than a thousand trees now stand. On another front, an indigenous cultural community in Bokod is losing interest concerning the proposed mining exploration in their midst.

In last week’s column, on behalf of those who truly are opposed to the proposed “development” on the forest cover beside the Baguio Convention Center , we appealed for vigilance against any tree cutting. We also appealed for support for legislative measures filed at the city council. Councilors Fred Bagbagen and Richard Carino already filed one. They need our support.

Reaction letters from people I do not know but who are equally concerned about what may happen to the trees have started filling up the e-mail inbox. A letter from Freddie de Guzman of Canada came in earlier even before last week’s column. He said that as a kid who grew up in the DPS-Marcoville area, they used to fly kite at the grassy mound known to Baguio boys and girls as “ Mount Peace .”

Cutting down thousands of trees to give way to a concrete bizniz edifice is not what Freddie and the rest of us want to happen. And even as the first tree is yet to be cut and construction still to begin, agents of the biznizman have already started doing damage control – “reconnecting again friendship ties” with members of the media, especially now when the “need to do so arises.”

But no amount of corporate build-up and face-saving dole-outs to the city’s outlying communities can erase a looming plan to kill trees. Not even medical-dental missions by a Foundation can bring back to life a dead forest. Once the trees are cut, they are gone – and in place is a concrete of a monster. Your choice.

Just like anybody who comes home once in a while from abroad, the rest are shocked to see the physical transformation that Baguio has been into in the past so many years. When Richard Arandia was here two years ago, he told me that Baguio ’s skyline has changed. Just like us who never left, they are alarmed of the fast-paced construction that is taking place. “This is not the Baguio that I used to know and it is not what most of us expect it to be,” they say.

Baguio does not deserve to be bullied by moneyed bizniz. That already happened when the former Pines Hotel lot was purchased. The 2.4534-hectare lot was sold in the amount of P69,999,995.52. Then Councilor Bong Mandapat revealed that the sale was not in accordance with the existing market value and official zonal valuation of BIR at that time, aside from the 7.5 % documentary stamp and real property tax.

At that time the zonal value for Session Rd. and Governor Pack Rd. , including Luneta hill, was P6,750.00 as of February 10, 1990. The Pines Hotel lot was sold at only P2,026.98 per square meter. Minimum sale should have been P233,104,500. The government “lost” P163,104,505.00 in the sale.

Of course, the money thought to be lost was not exactly lost. It went to a private pockets. That is not what concerns us now. We only wish that no more underhanded act is done against the city and its environment, especially at a time when Baguio is set to celebrate its one hundredth birthday or centennial founding anniversary. A crime against Baguio ’s environment is a crime against its people, their children, and children’s children.
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Applications for three mining exploration permits covering respective areas in Bokod, Benguet have been filed with the Mines and Geo-Sciences Bureau years ago. Reliable sources say that two of the three areas that were originally assigned to Magellan Metals Inc. were reassigned to individual exploration groups, one of which failed to obtain the Free and Prior Informed Consent of the community, despite millions of pesos spent.

Late reports say that the investors of the proposed exploration assignments are ready to rescind the individual contracts due to investment problems. My sources also said Magellan does not have the money to explore and is even indebted. If the reports are true, these leave the indigenous cultural community (ICC) unsure of what decisions to make.

To them, a merger of explorers covering the three areas is looming in the horizon. What is behind a merger, if that is true? That has yet to be told by the exploration applicants who, up to now, have not laid down their cards. But if the reports are false – meaning, assigned exploration contracts will not be rescinded and no merger will take place, then the explorers only have to show some degree of commitment to deliver what they are asked of by the ICC.

But so far, that has not been done. All that the community is getting are colorful stories of imagined benefits soon to be delivered. That is uncertain. One thing more, the ICC is being pushed to reconsider their previous resolution of non-consent – something they are not comfortable of doing. What’s in it for them if they recall that resolution? When asked why the “rush” to recall the “NO” resolution? My answer to them is that explorers Magellan and Columbus need the document in order to get money from investors.

The past “consultations” and eventual “NO” voting that took place created a painful gap among friends, even among relatives. That is a wound that has become part of the history of that ICC. I feel that does not have to be repeated. Even Magellan and Columbus and their “consultants” have become names that they do not want to hear.

Some have apprehensions that the “consultants” are brokers among brokers who are “playing” them.Their logic is simple. If it comes to a point where friends and relatives come in conflict against each other, then that will be the end of it all. And so, among farmers who have been quite satisfied with their peaceful and simple lives, they would choose to attend to their daily chores in the rain rather than spend time attending meetings that would again divide them … in pain. – marchfianza777@yahoo.com