Relocate: Natonin folk in ‘danger zone’ told

By Roger Sacyaten

NATONIN, Mountain Province -- – The Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Cordillera Administrative Region has reiterated its recommendation for the relocation of a school and various sitios of Barangay Balangao in this eastern municipality for being in a hazardous location.

In its report on the Geohazard Assessment of Barangay Balangao, the Balangao Elementary School formerly called Apapawan Elementary School is presently located in a high hazard area. Classes are to be immediately suspended during typhoons and continuous rains for a day for the safety of students and teachers.

The school has also been recommended to be relocated to safer grounds. The proposed school relocation site is relatively stable and is moderately sloping unlike the present location which is accordingly just below a mountain.

The other areas found to be experiencing ground instabilities are sitios Apapawan, Chupapa, Poca, and Teechen.

Ground instability is in the form of creeping which is a type of mass and downward movement of slope materials like rocks and soil. Most of the underlying materials within the said sitios assessed are thick debris or slide deposits which could have come from the mountain above caused by landslides long ago.

Residents have accordingly relayed that ‘sinking” usually occurs during heavy rains when rain water slowly carries loose and unconsolidated soil causing tilting and partial destruction of structures such as houses.

Fay Apil, chief geologist of the MGB-CAR, concluded in her report that the creeping being experienced in Barangay Balangao could happen in a very long time considering the thick or large volume of slide materials in the elevated portions.

In a report to Orlando Pineda, Sr. dated August 11, Apil emphasized the need for the relocation of the school to the proposed relocation site at sitio Natnat which is relatively stable.
The community is reportedly amenable to the relocation.

The stability, however, of the proposed relocation site will be enhanced by improving the communal drainage canals in the area and installation of slope protections as well as other mitigation measures.

Accordingly to Balangao Barangay Captain June Bangngayan, the relocation site covers an area of 3,580 square meters donated by three concerned residents in the barangay.

Apil, though, is wondering why there is still no positive development in the recommendation which was made after an investigation in 2009. Perhaps, one reason cited is the far distance from the residential areas to the detriment of school children.

The geohazard assessment was an offshoot of a request of Congressman Maximo Dalog for the conduct of a new investigation on the hazardous sites after some members of the community reportedly questioned the recommendations of the first assessments in 2009.

It was learned that the first investigations was conducted in response to the request by former Mayor Atty. Ana Marie Paz Rafael Banaag for the geological assessment of unstable or sinking areas in the barangay.

Some concerned residents of the barangay had petitioned the Office of Rep. Dalog to cause the conduct of a reassessment or investigation of the “sinking” and moves for relocation of the school and some sitios.

Catalino Panganiban, Chief, Administrative and Finance Division of MGB-CAR, told Dalog in a letter dated August 17 that the result of the second investigation would satisfy the purposes and intents of the of the request of his office and the people.

It is also hoped that the assessment would put to rest the issues and concerns regarding the geological situation of Barangay Balangao.