Cordillera roads

 LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March L. Fianza

The scandalous news about the Priority Development Assistance Fund or “pork barrel” fund has reached far and wide, even as in truth it has been hidden in private pockets of private individuals and lawmakers. For me, I would have wanted to have it spent on roads – the facility that is most needed by communities that crave for true development. Just put the road in place and the rest will follow. Improving and constructing new interior roads does not only increase the growth rate of communities, it disperses populations from the center and opens up new settlements.

In the farthest barangays of Benguet and Ifugao that I have gone to, the road is a priority that the farmers want in their lives. Lusod and Tawangan after Barangay Ballay is is dire need of a road line. It has an old road has been opened in the 80s but this needs to be rehabilitated in order to make transport of farm products move at a faster rate.

Then there is another Lusod that leads to the neighboring sitio of Domolpos in Barangay Tinongdan, Itogon. The area is also in need of a road as the Iwaks and Kalanguyas here have only been satisfied in traversing an old foot trail since they settled in these communities in the clouds. Between Tinoc and Buguias, there are communities that need roads.

Above Bontoc in Mountain Province, a road goes up to Maligcong. It is located 8.5-km north of barangay Caluttit. It can be reached by motor vehicle through a 7-km. road that stops at Fabuyan. At the dead end of the road, a footpath along rice paddies leads to the village proper. The road did not reach the barangay proper because of the presence of age-old rice fields. But it can be repaired or concreted to increase tourist arrival to view beautiful ricefields.

Maligcong has six scattered sitios that are craving for constant repair of their roads. If this is extended further, it can connect to Sagada, particularly Barangay Madongo. Although, government planners must have to be extra careful not to overdo development as this may interrupt the preservation of cultures. 

In Ifugao, Gov. Denis Habawel said, tourism roads and other modern infrastructure projects should not disturb culture. Certainly, there must be something wrong in the way tourism executives make programs, disregarding other factors that are more important than tourism itself.

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There are several reasons why environmental cases are dismissed by fiscals or lost in the courts. The most common that we read about is that law enforcers are not equipped with the proper tools in filing the cases against offenders of forestry laws. This prompted the DENR in the Cordillera to hold a paralegal training for police officers and other concerned personalities.

Aside from an over-all review of environmental laws that was presented by DENR Legal Chief Renato C. Bestre, the state of environment in Benguet was discussed, along with the topic on Measurement and Assessment of Forest Products and Transport Documents by Forester Manuel Magkachi.

Four relative topics that were important for the police officers were discussed. These were the Rules and Procedures for Environmental Cases; Basic Investigation and Evidence Gathering; Preparing the Case for the Prosecution and Rules on Admissibility of Testimonial Evidence; and Preparing the Affidavit in Lieu of Direct Examination. These were presented by Atty. Cleo Andrada, Prosecutors Winston Suaking and Arthur T. Bataclao, and  Atty. Karen Joy C. Rulloda, respectively. At least that was what appeared in the program.

I dropped by Brentwood along M. Roxas St. where the para-legal training took place to see what I could gather and saw that the topics were interesting to any ordinary forest protector or “environmentalist”. Although what I most wanted to hear from the discussants were the reasons why such cases failed to prosper in prosecution or in the courts. There are reasons I know as divulged to me by friends in the court. They say witnesses were begged by the defendants not to appear during hearings while some were asked to back out from the case in exchange for “favors”.

The para-legal training’s aim is to make effective the procedures in the filing of the cases and in prosecuting forest law offenders. And so, we expect to see an increase in the percentage of convictions in the near future.