March Fianza
Bolante’s loose caper
Congratulations to Regional Trial Court Judge Ed Claravall for being elected National President of Young Men’s Christian Association, vice Ramon Cardenas, financial analyst and senior executive secretary of former President Erap.
Like US President Barack Obama, “advocate for change,” who will take his seat in January, Judge Claravall who will also sit as national president in that month will bring new changes in YMCA.
***
It is time the abductors of Cordillera Peoples Alliance co-founder James Balao should be thinking of their situation. They may choose to turn witness against the crime because soon the truth will come out anyway – maybe not in this lifetime but as the law of karma works mysteriously, their descendants are those who will suffer the consequences.
News reports had it that police authorities stepped up their effort in identifying and looking for James Balao’s abductors. Thank you. Setting aside political ideologies that are less permanent as compared to culture and relations, proper police investigation must be pursued as much as any other crime. Bias must be left out since the case involves the life of a fellow Igorot.
***
There maybe truth in the line that “flight is an indication of guilt.” First, Mr. Jocjoc Bolante took off for America after the 2004 elections. Second, when asked to come home to answer charges that he manipulated government money in a scam worth P728M, he immediately sought shelter in an American court and said that he can not go home because he fears for his life.
He should not have left if he did not feel guilty of a crime. He could have come back right away when the Senate summoned him, and he should not have told tales of conspiracy because he knew that not even the American court would believe him. All these actions after the 2004 elections have pulled him deeper into the mud.
There was nowhere else to go but home after America cancelled his visa. But Jocjoc and his spin doctors have not run out of tricks. He got sick right away when his airplane landed here, but he was fit to travel when he left America . Of course, any sick person would be rushed to a hospital.
And so, there he was with the best doctors of St Luke’s hoping against hope that Bolante was really sick. They could not find any so that eventually, after having more time to plan out his moves, he had to be released. Until now his doctors do not know what ailed him. If he had wished to stay longer and turn St. Luke’s into a hotel room, maybe the doctors had no choice left but to invent a very sick report for him, so that there would be legitimate reason for him to be confined.
Aside from his true and false statements in the American court, there are evidences produced by the COA and other sources that are now in the custody of the Ombudsman. Now, he can not be saying something in America and the Ombudsman while talking about another thing in the Senate. Otherwise, he will find himself caught in the tongue with his own hook.
********
While in Manila , a jeepney that was ahead of us had the words “street farmer” boldly painted across its mud guards. I knew what the driver meant by those words but what flew to my mind was the fact that certain LGUs in Metro Manila, a concrete jungle, were recipients of funds for overpriced foliage fertilizers.
When and how Manila roads and residential subdivisions turned into agricultural farms overnight, that we do not know. These things only happen in dreams. But in this administration, even dreams come true. And even allied politicians who know that rice, corn and camote do not grow on cement become recipients of fertilizer funds.
If Bolante said Malacanang is not knowledgeable of the money releases that involved P728M and therefore it is not guilty, then there must be many other fund releases that Malacanang does not know about, even as their signatures appear in the documents.
Well, it is good to have a President who is ignorant of things that he signs. Our beloved country is up in the list of Most Corrupt nations and so the more ignorant a President is about things that his secretaries do, we go up the list and the more popular we become.
Farmers who were supposed to be the true beneficiaries said they never received any assistance even if records proved that their congressman or governor or mayor did receive the funds. Surely, politicians whose names appeared in the list of recipients will deny anything that will implicate them.
If so, there is no doubt that the investigation by the senate will end earlier as expected. Aside from these delays, there are senators and department secretaries identified with the administration who say that the senate probe is useless – giving us the hint that they already know the whole truth. – ozram.666@gmail.com
Showing posts with label Letters from the Agno. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Letters from the Agno. Show all posts
Monday, November 17, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March L. Fianza
The dream of Martin Luther King Jr.
BAGUIO CITY – When I first read the name, I wondered where it originated. But what’s in a name? And so, as the practice in the household has been started a long time ago, I named our new dog “Obama.”
Earlier, two short-legged mongrels were baptized “Bush” and “Gloria.” The male one seems blind as it does not quickly recognize its keepers. I doubt if it keeps in his memory the individual smell of the people around as it attacks anybody, friend or foe.
Gloria is a tamed one. It does not go around biting anybody but it really is a true mongrel bitch that every askal in the neighborhood drop by and visit when it is in heat.
But the more popular Obama we all know is one who changed American history last Tuesday. Barack Hussein Obama, the first African-American to be elected President of the United States will sit as the 44th President of the USA . He is the first candidate from Hawaii to be elected as US President.
People from around the seven continents who stayed up late to watch the results of the polls struggled to comprehend how and why Obama won. The youth interviewed by an international media outfit say Obama’s victory is “victory for America and the world.”
In France , Britain , Iraq and Israel , and even in Manila , emotional Barack fans said prayers of thanks even as they too were speechless when asked about how the new President would “change” their lives.
A youthful by-stander in a Hong Kong bar quipped: Obama’s win is also for “anyone else in the world who is tired of Bush.” But the sentiment of many say that Obama’s win is the “end of racism and the beginning of true justice and equality – not for America alone but all over where races of different colors co-exist.”
A teacher in American History in Japan told a news anchor the US elections reflect statements made by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his “I have a dream” speech that he delivered in front of 250,000 civil rights marchers on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC during the March for Jobs and Freedom in August 1963.
Part of his speech goes: “And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual – Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.”
Wanting to participate in voting and unconditionally be part of the American society has been a dream for Black Americans since the 1800s. The unidentified college professor concluded that the US presidential election spelled victory in Dr. King’s fight for civil rights recently won in Obama’s presidential dream.
Barack finished what a King has started.
“Keep your garbage in your own backyard.” This seems to be the message being imparted by a number of our councilors, contrary to the proposal of Benguet Corp. to offer the abandoned Antamok open-pit mine as a sanitary landfill for Baguio City.
In a recent conversation with Councilor Nick Aliping Jr, he did not say that BC’s proposal and the other land offers outside the city are not okay but that the “social acceptability of the project is uncertain.”
Considering the volatile character of an already offended community around the former Antamok open-pit mine, Councilor Aliping has a point. While BC’s offer may be good, there is no assurance that the residents around the former Antamok open-pit mine will not ‘revolt’ against the sanitary landfill.
This is expected especially when the garbage landfill has become operational and there is no way that the foul odor can be contained. Nobody in his right mind is willing to host in his or her backyard tons and tons of foul-smelling garbage dumped by a neighbor.
These are the reasons why Councilor Nick and some colleagues prefer to keep Baguio ’s garbage within the city’s boundaries. With that, the city is left with no other choice but to fix the Irisan dumpsite while preparing a new site at the foot of Santo Tomas which is city-owned.
In the meantime, MRFs (material recovery facility) will have to be installed in strategic locations in the city to serve the districts. The proposal by a foreign group assured that the city’s waste could be reduced by 40 percent with the construction of at least 17 MRFs. This will ultimately lessen the delivery of waste at the Irisan dump, the councilor said.
I too strongly oppose BC’s good proposal. Switching on the Google map in the internet, I saw that aside from the offensive smell that can not be contained by any means, below Antamok are sitios with ricefields, home gardens and houses whose water sources will surely be contaminated once the garbage pit operates.
Further below are tributaries that, once contaminated, endanger the condition of the mighty Agno River and all humans, animals and plants that draw life from it.
BC and its forerunner companies have already mined out the town’s minerals – making foreign and Manila capitalists very rich. And for some reasons, the relations between the company and Itogon, the host town of the mining operations, has been strained several times in the past.
While the proposed Antamok garbage dump will absolutely provide additional income for the municipality – just like a lollipop candy that is dangled to a little kid, the money earned can not compensate for whatever injury the 30-year operation impacts on nature. Environmental protection is non-negotiable.
As one who has seen and heard from relatives and company workers tales about unsettled problems now buried under the open-pit dust, I feel that bringing in the stench of garbage is abusive – an insult to the submissive Igorot or the meek and gentle Ibaloi. –ozram.666@gmail.com
The dream of Martin Luther King Jr.
BAGUIO CITY – When I first read the name, I wondered where it originated. But what’s in a name? And so, as the practice in the household has been started a long time ago, I named our new dog “Obama.”
Earlier, two short-legged mongrels were baptized “Bush” and “Gloria.” The male one seems blind as it does not quickly recognize its keepers. I doubt if it keeps in his memory the individual smell of the people around as it attacks anybody, friend or foe.
Gloria is a tamed one. It does not go around biting anybody but it really is a true mongrel bitch that every askal in the neighborhood drop by and visit when it is in heat.
But the more popular Obama we all know is one who changed American history last Tuesday. Barack Hussein Obama, the first African-American to be elected President of the United States will sit as the 44th President of the USA . He is the first candidate from Hawaii to be elected as US President.
People from around the seven continents who stayed up late to watch the results of the polls struggled to comprehend how and why Obama won. The youth interviewed by an international media outfit say Obama’s victory is “victory for America and the world.”
In France , Britain , Iraq and Israel , and even in Manila , emotional Barack fans said prayers of thanks even as they too were speechless when asked about how the new President would “change” their lives.
A youthful by-stander in a Hong Kong bar quipped: Obama’s win is also for “anyone else in the world who is tired of Bush.” But the sentiment of many say that Obama’s win is the “end of racism and the beginning of true justice and equality – not for America alone but all over where races of different colors co-exist.”
A teacher in American History in Japan told a news anchor the US elections reflect statements made by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his “I have a dream” speech that he delivered in front of 250,000 civil rights marchers on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC during the March for Jobs and Freedom in August 1963.
Part of his speech goes: “And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual – Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.”
Wanting to participate in voting and unconditionally be part of the American society has been a dream for Black Americans since the 1800s. The unidentified college professor concluded that the US presidential election spelled victory in Dr. King’s fight for civil rights recently won in Obama’s presidential dream.
Barack finished what a King has started.
“Keep your garbage in your own backyard.” This seems to be the message being imparted by a number of our councilors, contrary to the proposal of Benguet Corp. to offer the abandoned Antamok open-pit mine as a sanitary landfill for Baguio City.
In a recent conversation with Councilor Nick Aliping Jr, he did not say that BC’s proposal and the other land offers outside the city are not okay but that the “social acceptability of the project is uncertain.”
Considering the volatile character of an already offended community around the former Antamok open-pit mine, Councilor Aliping has a point. While BC’s offer may be good, there is no assurance that the residents around the former Antamok open-pit mine will not ‘revolt’ against the sanitary landfill.
This is expected especially when the garbage landfill has become operational and there is no way that the foul odor can be contained. Nobody in his right mind is willing to host in his or her backyard tons and tons of foul-smelling garbage dumped by a neighbor.
These are the reasons why Councilor Nick and some colleagues prefer to keep Baguio ’s garbage within the city’s boundaries. With that, the city is left with no other choice but to fix the Irisan dumpsite while preparing a new site at the foot of Santo Tomas which is city-owned.
In the meantime, MRFs (material recovery facility) will have to be installed in strategic locations in the city to serve the districts. The proposal by a foreign group assured that the city’s waste could be reduced by 40 percent with the construction of at least 17 MRFs. This will ultimately lessen the delivery of waste at the Irisan dump, the councilor said.
I too strongly oppose BC’s good proposal. Switching on the Google map in the internet, I saw that aside from the offensive smell that can not be contained by any means, below Antamok are sitios with ricefields, home gardens and houses whose water sources will surely be contaminated once the garbage pit operates.
Further below are tributaries that, once contaminated, endanger the condition of the mighty Agno River and all humans, animals and plants that draw life from it.
BC and its forerunner companies have already mined out the town’s minerals – making foreign and Manila capitalists very rich. And for some reasons, the relations between the company and Itogon, the host town of the mining operations, has been strained several times in the past.
While the proposed Antamok garbage dump will absolutely provide additional income for the municipality – just like a lollipop candy that is dangled to a little kid, the money earned can not compensate for whatever injury the 30-year operation impacts on nature. Environmental protection is non-negotiable.
As one who has seen and heard from relatives and company workers tales about unsettled problems now buried under the open-pit dust, I feel that bringing in the stench of garbage is abusive – an insult to the submissive Igorot or the meek and gentle Ibaloi. –ozram.666@gmail.com
Sunday, November 2, 2008
LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March Fianza
Farmers, school children and cops
The organizers of the benefit concert “Songs for Mark Anthony” last Tuesday wish to thank all who supported it. Your efforts to help alleviate the situation of the 10-year old boy, a Hodgkin Lymphoma victim who is now undergoing chemotherapy treatment, will certainly go a long way.
Thank you very much to Novi Balagew of Amarillo Bar & Restaurant for allowing the use of the place, sound system and other facilities for free. Thank you to all the artist-musicians and singers who continue to share their talents for free.
********
There is one thing common in farmers, school children and cops. They become unwitting victims of the misdeeds of their supposed benefactors. But this early, it is unfair that people quickly judge former agriculture undersecretary Jocjoc Bolante and retired Philippine National Police Comptroller Eliseo dela Paz for their wicked errors.
Bolante was accused of engineering the diversion of P728 million allotted for poor farmers, to President Gloria Arroyo's campaign kitty in the 2004 elections.
Dela Paz was caught by Russian customs officials with an undeclared 105,000 Euros equivalent to PhP6.9 million in his wife's carry-on baggage as they were about to leave for Poland on October 11, 2008.
Probe teams scampering for more evidences have yet to report to the public the results of their investigations of the twin scams. Filipinos hope that there will be no attempts of any ‘whitewash’ even as they already feel that it will not be so.
But who knows, after the probe we might be told that influential big guys, I mean big-shots, are behind the scams. And if so, then truth-seeking Pinoys should rally behind Bolante and dela Paz and truly support them for the sake of truth.
The P728 million fertilizer fund scam involves all 17 regions in the Philippines , several LGU officials that include two incumbent governors and four congressmen who were unnecessarily dragged as respondents to the case by Bolante.
The alleged ‘engineer’ of the P728 million fertilizer fund scandal arrived in the country last Tuesday and was immediately brought to the St. Luke’s Hospital after complaining of chest pains.
Apparently, Bolante’s confinement seemed deliberate as a room reservation was already made even before his arrival to the country. This brought about suspicions that high-ranking big-shots are around to influence Bolante.
News reports had it that a mother named Rose who had fallen asleep while waiting for the admission of her child complained why Bolante immediately got a room even without going to the emergency room first.
It was reported further that the long wait had forced other patients to move to other hospitals. Others chose to stay and wait for rooms to become vacant but this is not so in the case of Bolante.
To the powers that be, Bolante is the VIP of the day – contrary to what a Malacanang mouthpiece had kept saying that he is now a “private citizen.”
Sanlakas spokesman Rasti Delizo asked “Why is it that men who are wanted are always brought to the hospital?”
By the way, a real construction engineer in the DPWH in Baguio who is used to constructing public school buildings, not the kind who engineers fund scams, said the P728 million could have easily built more than 180 four-room, single floor Marcos-type prefab schools with chalkboards and chairs.
That could have accommodated around 8,000 school children who have been holding classes under the mango trees. That could have solved a problem that has haunted our school officials every opening of classes.
That is what politicians who wish to win by hook or by crook do to school children. We now see that not only were the poor farmers the victims of that scandal, it also affected other concerns, most especially health, education and the environment.
********
Retired Philippine National Police comptroller Eliseo dela Paz appeared to have gotten off lightly from Russian authorities after having been found with 105,000 Euros in the bag of his wife.
But Dela Paz is not yet off the hook. He is facing criminal charges, including malversation of public funds, for the allegedly unauthorized release of a P6.9-million cash advance from the PNP intelligence fund.
Just like Bolante, he can not be prejudged as there may be personalities behind his actions – unless he did the act on his own.
PNP Director General Jesus Verzosa also ordered the filing of administrative charges against Dela Paz for not declaring the money in Moscow , where he was accosted by Russian customs officers.
If the investigations drag in this latest scam, all the more that Filipinos suspect of attempts of a whitewash.
Unfortunately, the victims here are our own policemen. While they grieve for the absence of guns, ammos and things that are necessary in the performance of their job, their retired comptroller easily sneaked out P6.9 million out of the country.
While a majority of our cops perform their duties with honesty and sincerity in the streets and offices, putting their lives in danger everytime they walk out the door of their homes, the misdeed of a lone police general puts them to shame – locally, even internationally.
It has not been easy to rebuild a good image for the neighborhood cop, but the hard work has been effortlessly stained by a single act. In Baguio , Benguet and the Cordillera, a majority of our citizens, that includes me, have faith in the policeman and so I hope people will understand that the act of one is not the act of all. Good luck! -- mf
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March L. Fianza
‘Awan itono mi’
BOKOD, Benguet -- The municipality of Bokod in Benguet junked last week a proposal to resurrect the creation of the Cordillera Autonomous Region. They dropped it saying, it would “entail the disbursement of public funds which could be used for priority projects.”
Their resolution cited a good and legitimate reason. In other words, they were saying “awan itono mi!” And who knows, that may be the sentiment common among all LGUs that, in a worldwide economic slump, prioritize programs that would cater to food for their constituents rather than get involved in other matters.
Apparently, this is Bokod’s reaction to a move by the Benguet provincial board that forwarded to the 13 towns a request by the Cordillera Regional Assembly for the LGUs to support through resolutions the filing of another bill for the creation of an autonomous region.
But according to Director Juan Ngalob of the NEDA-Cordillera, the Cordillera Executive Board (CEB), the Cordillera Bodong Administration and CRA were deactivated by Malacanang by simply not allocating them new operational budgets.
Even the corresponding staff and other personnel of these bodies were retired from government service and received their separation benefits, Dir. Ngalob further said. The three Cordillera bodies were created under EO220 of Tita Cory.
To avoid a vacuum in the absence of the Cordillera bodies and in order to insure continuity in the process, Malacanang tasked the Regional Development Council to carry on with the autonomy agenda.
The remaining 12 Benguet towns and all the rest of the LGUs in this mountain region have yet to write their respective resolutions. When they have done so, they will have to direct these to the RDC.
Although late as it seemed, Malacanang may have been advised that the personalities involved in the three deactivated Cordillera bodies, in one way or another, drew the ire of sectors that campaigned against autonomy.
But in fairness to the defunct CRA, its move to request the LGUs for resolutions, in connection with the autonomy agenda, is laudable. This should have been the move prior to the first plebiscite in 1990.
With a considerable number of Cordillera LGUs issuing their respective resolutions for or against autonomy, we could have had an initial assessment of where the matter stood – or where we stood, at least.
On the other hand, the diverse statements of the LGUs in the Cordillera in connection with the autonomy agenda are genuine sentiments that can not simply be dismissed.
No doubt, there appears to be an undying call, genuine or not, for the resurrection of an autonomous Cordillera region that has already been rejected in two plebiscites. No-nonsense issues continue to hound the ‘clamor’ but the questions that people always wanted to ask are “who are the individuals or groups clamoring to resurrect the move for autonomy – and why?” Sino dagita mangidurduron ti autonomy? Apay ngata?
The Constitution mentions about the establishment of autonomous regions in Mindanao and the Cordillera. The provision was inserted by our leaders in the past, considering that the mountain provinces and their people, even while they shared common features that are distinctly Cordilleran, were not united under a single region.
The Cordillera provinces were either lumped with the Ilocos region or the Cagayan Valley region. The Mindanao provinces, occupied by Moros, Muslims, Lumads, Christians and non-Christian tribes were also mixed up.
But is the Constitutional provision the only reason behind an ‘undying call’ for autonomy, or are there more genuine reasons for all Cordillerans to unite?
Is it really necessary that we unite under an autonomous set up? There are sectors in the region who want to be established under a regular region. What about federalism as proposed by Senator Pimentel and supported by Malacanang? What could be the advantages and disadvantages of the various forms of regional government set up?
Except for those who were kept in the dark or were never informed about the autonomy agenda, several parts of the region, especially the populated centers, are longing for answers.
An honest to goodness info-drive and consultation in all corners of the Cordillera is in order. Let us hope the answers during the consultations are presented side by side on matrix so that those in attendance could have a better grasp of the discussions.
‘Awan itono mi’
BOKOD, Benguet -- The municipality of Bokod in Benguet junked last week a proposal to resurrect the creation of the Cordillera Autonomous Region. They dropped it saying, it would “entail the disbursement of public funds which could be used for priority projects.”
Their resolution cited a good and legitimate reason. In other words, they were saying “awan itono mi!” And who knows, that may be the sentiment common among all LGUs that, in a worldwide economic slump, prioritize programs that would cater to food for their constituents rather than get involved in other matters.
Apparently, this is Bokod’s reaction to a move by the Benguet provincial board that forwarded to the 13 towns a request by the Cordillera Regional Assembly for the LGUs to support through resolutions the filing of another bill for the creation of an autonomous region.
But according to Director Juan Ngalob of the NEDA-Cordillera, the Cordillera Executive Board (CEB), the Cordillera Bodong Administration and CRA were deactivated by Malacanang by simply not allocating them new operational budgets.
Even the corresponding staff and other personnel of these bodies were retired from government service and received their separation benefits, Dir. Ngalob further said. The three Cordillera bodies were created under EO220 of Tita Cory.
To avoid a vacuum in the absence of the Cordillera bodies and in order to insure continuity in the process, Malacanang tasked the Regional Development Council to carry on with the autonomy agenda.
The remaining 12 Benguet towns and all the rest of the LGUs in this mountain region have yet to write their respective resolutions. When they have done so, they will have to direct these to the RDC.
Although late as it seemed, Malacanang may have been advised that the personalities involved in the three deactivated Cordillera bodies, in one way or another, drew the ire of sectors that campaigned against autonomy.
But in fairness to the defunct CRA, its move to request the LGUs for resolutions, in connection with the autonomy agenda, is laudable. This should have been the move prior to the first plebiscite in 1990.
With a considerable number of Cordillera LGUs issuing their respective resolutions for or against autonomy, we could have had an initial assessment of where the matter stood – or where we stood, at least.
On the other hand, the diverse statements of the LGUs in the Cordillera in connection with the autonomy agenda are genuine sentiments that can not simply be dismissed.
No doubt, there appears to be an undying call, genuine or not, for the resurrection of an autonomous Cordillera region that has already been rejected in two plebiscites. No-nonsense issues continue to hound the ‘clamor’ but the questions that people always wanted to ask are “who are the individuals or groups clamoring to resurrect the move for autonomy – and why?” Sino dagita mangidurduron ti autonomy? Apay ngata?
The Constitution mentions about the establishment of autonomous regions in Mindanao and the Cordillera. The provision was inserted by our leaders in the past, considering that the mountain provinces and their people, even while they shared common features that are distinctly Cordilleran, were not united under a single region.
The Cordillera provinces were either lumped with the Ilocos region or the Cagayan Valley region. The Mindanao provinces, occupied by Moros, Muslims, Lumads, Christians and non-Christian tribes were also mixed up.
But is the Constitutional provision the only reason behind an ‘undying call’ for autonomy, or are there more genuine reasons for all Cordillerans to unite?
Is it really necessary that we unite under an autonomous set up? There are sectors in the region who want to be established under a regular region. What about federalism as proposed by Senator Pimentel and supported by Malacanang? What could be the advantages and disadvantages of the various forms of regional government set up?
Except for those who were kept in the dark or were never informed about the autonomy agenda, several parts of the region, especially the populated centers, are longing for answers.
An honest to goodness info-drive and consultation in all corners of the Cordillera is in order. Let us hope the answers during the consultations are presented side by side on matrix so that those in attendance could have a better grasp of the discussions.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March L. Fianza
Octoberians
October is “Cancer Month.” For some sectors in the city, they decided to fittingly celebrate it by sponsoring a free concert for Mark Anthony Viray, a 10-yr old kid who dreams of flying an airplane someday.
Mark Anthony is stricken with Hodgkin Lymphoma, a type of disease that infects the soft tissues of the body. His father who had to stop driving taxicabs to attend to him said his son is presently undergoing chemotherapy treatment which he cannot afford.
Many times over in the past, musicians coordinated with bar and restaurant owners to share their talents and help lighten the financial load of countless indigent patients.
Their sense of volunteerism has evolved into a multi-sectoral or community undertaking that today involves members of press organizations, barangay leaders, government agencies and countless kind-hearted donor organizations and individuals here and abroad.
Even professional groups that include lawyer-musicians came to participate. Atty. Rolly Vergara from the City Prosecutors Office and Atty. Angie Cabrera together with their friend Sara joined other musicians in a benefit concert three years ago. They now perform their music with co-lawyers Jose “Bubut” Olarte, Jr. and Nes Mondok who have spent many good years singing in music bars. They have been joining several benefit concerts ever since and now call their group “The BluGraz Band.”
This October, the benefit concert dubbed “Songs for Mark Anthony” will again be held at the Amarillo Bar and Restaurant (formerly Spirits), along Otek St. , on October 28, 2008, at 7pm.
The show is co-sponsored by the Baguio musicians and the Amarillo management; the family, friends and relatives of Mark Anthony, the DPS Barangay led by Kapitana Narcisa G. Laguitan, the Public Information Office of the City of Baguio, www.baguiocity.com and the Baguio Correspondents and Broadcasters Club.
Donor tickets are sold at P200, general admission or gate tickets at P50. All ticket sales and donations will be given to Mark Anthony who needs your help.
***
Today, James M. Balao has already gone missing for one whole month and two days. The latest report I received through e-mail presented part of the chronology of events that took place on that fateful morning of Sept. 17, 2008.
Several witnesses who were at Lower Tomay , La Trinidad, the place where the victim was taken before 8 a.m., reported about James being shoved inside a white Mitsubishi Revo or Adventure by five unidentified armed men. The lightning operation on James, including the conversations that were heard was reported by the witnesses.
The police and military deny any involvement in the “enforced disappearance” of James. If they are not lying then our trusted law enforcement agencies have more reason to put extra effort to locate him. Certainly, this has turned into a simple police matter that needs honest to goodness investigative work – no matter who may be involved.
Like the Black Widow spider, a victim breathes life into its abductor. This time, it is no longer a case about ideology or political beliefs. It is a plain case of a grieving family in search for a missing son. Whether the victim is branded as an “enemy of the state” or friend, government is duty bound to extend unconditional assistance – and more of it. Its people are its reason for its existence.
***
October is the lucky month for many Mindanaoans as finally the Supreme Court ruled that the memorandum of agreement on a controversial expansion of an ancestral domain that was nearly shoved into the throats of innocent citizens is unconstitutional.
But there are unlucky souls this month of October, especially members of the Philippine government panel that crafted the MOA, as the SC further described their initiative as a “violate now, validate later” scheme.
The MOA invention is a gross violation of the Constitution. Senator Mar Roxas said the Constitution violators must be punished and held accountable for their actions. I agree.
***
But in Abra, some sectors there are luckier this October as the RDC has poured in some money for the group to be taken from the P15 million allocated for information campaign on Cordillera autonomy that was recently revived by them.
The CAR autonomy info-drive that is supposed to be running on all wheels region-wide seems to be unheard of in many parts of the Cordillera. Is the agency that was tasked to conduct the information campaign doing so on a selective basis?
The concerned agency should open the autonomy consultation process to all of Cordillera and not follow the way of the Mindanao ancestral domain MOA. If not, there is doubt that the CAR will ever reach its destination.
Octoberians
October is “Cancer Month.” For some sectors in the city, they decided to fittingly celebrate it by sponsoring a free concert for Mark Anthony Viray, a 10-yr old kid who dreams of flying an airplane someday.
Mark Anthony is stricken with Hodgkin Lymphoma, a type of disease that infects the soft tissues of the body. His father who had to stop driving taxicabs to attend to him said his son is presently undergoing chemotherapy treatment which he cannot afford.
Many times over in the past, musicians coordinated with bar and restaurant owners to share their talents and help lighten the financial load of countless indigent patients.
Their sense of volunteerism has evolved into a multi-sectoral or community undertaking that today involves members of press organizations, barangay leaders, government agencies and countless kind-hearted donor organizations and individuals here and abroad.
Even professional groups that include lawyer-musicians came to participate. Atty. Rolly Vergara from the City Prosecutors Office and Atty. Angie Cabrera together with their friend Sara joined other musicians in a benefit concert three years ago. They now perform their music with co-lawyers Jose “Bubut” Olarte, Jr. and Nes Mondok who have spent many good years singing in music bars. They have been joining several benefit concerts ever since and now call their group “The BluGraz Band.”
This October, the benefit concert dubbed “Songs for Mark Anthony” will again be held at the Amarillo Bar and Restaurant (formerly Spirits), along Otek St. , on October 28, 2008, at 7pm.
The show is co-sponsored by the Baguio musicians and the Amarillo management; the family, friends and relatives of Mark Anthony, the DPS Barangay led by Kapitana Narcisa G. Laguitan, the Public Information Office of the City of Baguio, www.baguiocity.com and the Baguio Correspondents and Broadcasters Club.
Donor tickets are sold at P200, general admission or gate tickets at P50. All ticket sales and donations will be given to Mark Anthony who needs your help.
***
Today, James M. Balao has already gone missing for one whole month and two days. The latest report I received through e-mail presented part of the chronology of events that took place on that fateful morning of Sept. 17, 2008.
Several witnesses who were at Lower Tomay , La Trinidad, the place where the victim was taken before 8 a.m., reported about James being shoved inside a white Mitsubishi Revo or Adventure by five unidentified armed men. The lightning operation on James, including the conversations that were heard was reported by the witnesses.
The police and military deny any involvement in the “enforced disappearance” of James. If they are not lying then our trusted law enforcement agencies have more reason to put extra effort to locate him. Certainly, this has turned into a simple police matter that needs honest to goodness investigative work – no matter who may be involved.
Like the Black Widow spider, a victim breathes life into its abductor. This time, it is no longer a case about ideology or political beliefs. It is a plain case of a grieving family in search for a missing son. Whether the victim is branded as an “enemy of the state” or friend, government is duty bound to extend unconditional assistance – and more of it. Its people are its reason for its existence.
***
October is the lucky month for many Mindanaoans as finally the Supreme Court ruled that the memorandum of agreement on a controversial expansion of an ancestral domain that was nearly shoved into the throats of innocent citizens is unconstitutional.
But there are unlucky souls this month of October, especially members of the Philippine government panel that crafted the MOA, as the SC further described their initiative as a “violate now, validate later” scheme.
The MOA invention is a gross violation of the Constitution. Senator Mar Roxas said the Constitution violators must be punished and held accountable for their actions. I agree.
***
But in Abra, some sectors there are luckier this October as the RDC has poured in some money for the group to be taken from the P15 million allocated for information campaign on Cordillera autonomy that was recently revived by them.
The CAR autonomy info-drive that is supposed to be running on all wheels region-wide seems to be unheard of in many parts of the Cordillera. Is the agency that was tasked to conduct the information campaign doing so on a selective basis?
The concerned agency should open the autonomy consultation process to all of Cordillera and not follow the way of the Mindanao ancestral domain MOA. If not, there is doubt that the CAR will ever reach its destination.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March L. Fianza
Writ for James Balao; songs for Mark Anthony
BAGUIO CITY -- On Oct. 28, our untiring Baguio musicians will again gather at the Amarillo Bar and Restaurant (formerly Spirits Disco), this time to sing for Mark Anthony Viray, a 10-yr old boy who is presently undergoing chemotherapy treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma (body tissue cancer).
Dubbed “Songs for Mark Anthony” the Benefit Concert and “once-in-a-bluemoon” gathering of old and new musicians will feature the Cruise Control, the BluGraz Band, Dalluyon, Shakilan, Munay (flute artist from Bolivia), Mix Emotions, Nyt Moves, lawyer-musicians Rolly Vergara, Bubut Olarte, Nes Mondok, Angie Cabrera and Sara; publisher-editor Alfred Dizon with Art Mina, Brix, Liza and Sumitra, Dick Oakes and many others.
Lawyer Delmar Carino, Benguet Press Club president, whose heart is dedicated to worthwhile projects such as this, said he will also perform a duet with TV partner Joey Zambrano of the Philippine Information Agency.
Pigeon Lobien, president of the Baguio Correspondents and Broadcasters Club (BCBC) that is one of the sponsors of the concert said he will try to do a trio with board of directors Thom Picana and Zaldy Comanda.
Aside from BCBC and the management of Amarillo Bar that offered the concert venue for free, the benefit show is also being sponsored by the DPS-PNR barangay neighborhood and the Baguio City Hall Public Information Office headed by Ramon Dacawi.
Sponsor tickets will be sold at P200.00 and general admission tickets will be at P50.00. Help Mark Anthony. See you October 28, Tuesday evening at the Amarillo Bar.
***
A petition for the issuance of a Writ of Amparo to order several government offices, including the Office of the President, to “disclose where James Balao is detained, have him released immediately considering his unlawful detention since his abduction on September 17, 2008 and to cease and desist from further inflicting harm upon his person” has been filed last October 8 with a regional trial court in Benguet.
The new law which may be resorted to in cases of missing persons, especially those suspected to have been abducted by government forces, faces public scrutiny as to its usefulness and helpfulness in surfacing victims of abductions allegedly perpetrated by the state itself.
On October, 2007, Chief Justice Reynato Puno declared the legal conception of these writs – Amparo and her twin, the supplemental Philippine Habeas Data. He proclaimed the twin writs as his “legacy to the Filipinos,” at the same time admitting the inefficacy of Habeas Corpus, “since government officers repeatedly failed to produce the body of missing persons upon mere submission of the defense of alibi.”
With the issuance of the writ, the court may order all officers in control of police and military camps, detention facilities, safehouses and other offices to allow the entry of authorized persons for the purpose of inspecting the same, even to survey and photograph properties or relevant objects that may have any bearing with the case of the missing person.
The court’s issuance of the writ further directs officers of the police and military, as well as other executive agencies and offices to produce all documents that contain evidence relevant to the petition, particularly the Order of Battle (OB) which includes the name of James Balao and his dossier in the AFP and PNP offices, and other relevant documents.
I was in high school when Martial Law was declared in this country. It was a time when every activist feared of being listed in the OB of the military or police. Honestly, I thought the “democracies” of Tita Cory or FVR or Erap scrapped all of that.
I was wrong and so were many of us. Nothing changed of the watch under Marcos’es Martial Law and the democracies of those that followed after him. Today, it is even worse. While other remedies are hoped for, the petition for the writ may be one of the Balao family’s chances of seeing James again – if the law is executed properly and if the respondents led by President Gloria obey their own courts’ orders. – ozram.666@gmail.com
Sunday, October 5, 2008
LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March Fianza
Are there bad eggs in the uniformed service?
James Balao, 47; has been abducted and gone missing for 18 days now. For parents, the thought that their children are out somewhere unknown makes them grow older than their age.
In some part of our early lives we admit that we were vagabonds. But I never cared about what my parents could have been thinking or how they felt while I was away somewhere they did not know.
It is only when I became a father and turned into a Lolo that I came to know how my parents worried and felt about my “missing.” By way of this space the parents, sisters, brother, relatives and friends of James ask for anyone’s assistance who may have possibly seen him or heard of him in their vicinity.
“Your assistance in locating James is vital to his survival. He is still in captivity, we hope his captors release him. If he is being mistreated, we hope that his captors cease their actions and spare him anymore harm,” the Balao family appealed.
James Balao has concentrated on research work on issues affecting indigenous communities’ rights and defense of ancestral lands, thus helped in the drafting of the 1986 Constitution’s provisions on indigenous people’s rights. For sure there are bad eggs in the uniformed service or military who become innocent instruments, or scapegoats sometimes, in the government’s bid to rid their perceived enemies. They too are victims of the policies being used by government against its imagined enemies.
If you are one of them bad eggs or government scapegoats, please do answer the appeal of the Balao family. I am sure there are ways that you can employ so you can get in touch, without the boss knowing about it. Please contact CP No. 0918 691 8480 for any information.
And if you are a parent, you would know exactly how it hurts to have a missing son or daughter. I know James as a very harmless brandy drinker like me. Release him.
***
The erection of COMPAC ( Community Police Assistance Center ) buildings in strategic locations was seen to provide protection to the host district, local and foreign tourists. This, according to retired police Chief Avelino Razon. The police centers are as neat and sparkling as a hotel suite – vandals are tempted to write on the walls. Even mosquitoes could hardly make any landing because they could slip and slide once they do so.
But then the ‘spic and span’ centers can easily be reduced to mere physical structures with no character at all if persons assigned to manage them are worse than the scalawags that they apprehend.
This is so in the case of Peoples Tonight photojournalist – correspondent Cesar Reyes, who, instead of being assisted, was detained against his will at the COMPAC atop Session Road. Apparently, the cops who took custody of him already decided on a case that has not even been filed in court.
After traffic altercation where the journalist pays P2000 for the damages incurred in the accident and further surrenders his gun together with its license and permit – he goes to jail.
The gun’s papers that were taken from Reyes were not submitted to the fiscal as part of the evidences. Why? That is known only by the apprehending cop.
I suspect this is not an isolated case where offenders of simple crimes become victims of scheming cops who orchestrate the outcome of a case in order to obtain what interests them.
All of those I have talked to about the case of Reyes said the cop should be investigated for his involvement, most especially why the confiscated gun’s papers were kept by him.
The owner of the taxi that figured in the simple traffic incident should also be brought to court and to be investigated why after receiving from Reyes the agreed amount for the damages, proceeded to file a case.
Certainly there are bad eggs in the police force. But the integrity of other good men in uniform who go about their sworn duties honestly should not be tainted. The bad eggs in the force should be removed in order to preserve the good name of Baguio ’s Finest. –ozram.666@gmail.com
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
MARCH L FIANZA
Igorot clan leader abducted; journalist illegally detained
Has Martial Rule been re-declared – or has it come back without the need for any declaration?
A few days before the observance of the 22nd anniversary of Ninoy’s assassination, the human rights of two private individuals begun to be violated in separate incidents, allegedly by police and military elements, respectively.
Here are their stories. In the morning of Sept. 17, James Balao, 47, was abducted while on his way to his family home in La Trinidad, Benguet from his residence at Fairview Barangay, Baguio City .
He is a member of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance and president of the OCLUPAN Clan Association, an indigenous organization of the Ibaloi and Kankanaey tribes of Benguet.
James had earlier texted his family at around 6:45 in the morning of that day, informing them that he was going home. They said he never reached home and has not been in contact with his family or friends since, nor have they been able to contact him.
In a letter of appeal and urgent call that sought for his re-appearance, the Balao family together with the CPA and the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance said, the surveillance and enforced disappearance of James was perpetrated by state security forces as part of their operations under Oplan Bantay Laya.” They believed the alleged perpetrators were unidentified elements of the Intelligence Security Unit (ISU) of the AFP.
The peoples’ organizations also took note of information by reliable sources that James was “listed in the AFP dossier as the head of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Education Bureau in the Ilocos and Cordillera regions.”
If indeed the military dossier identified James as such, they apparently have done so to justify their acts of purging the membership of organizations perceived by them as “enemies of the state.”
Oplan Bantay Laya has categorized legal people's organizations and their staff and volunteers as "front organizations and supporters" of the of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) or National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) or the New People's Army (NPA).
For example, lawyer and former city councilor Joe Molintas has been the secretary-general of the CPA for quite a time – does that also justify his being branded as a “communist supporter?”
The same policy has led to the surveillance, harassment and intimidation, abduction and killing of members and leaders of progressive people's organizations all over the country. Doesn’t that appear like an orchestrated scenario by the military in their bid to rid society of their so-called enemies? It is time Congress revisits Oplan Bantay Laya.
James is the second victim of enforced disappearance in the CPA since the abduction of Ama Daniel Ngayaan in 1987. After him, hundreds more became victims of orchestrated abductions. To date, Jonas Burgos, son of the late Joe Burgos of Malaya publications, is nowhere to be found.
James had already reported seeing regular surveillance on him and his family since the first week of June this year. The frequency of the surveillance van heightened until his disappearance last week. He had told friends and relatives that he often observed white and blue vans that tailed him from his residence to his daily chores.
The letter of appeal for support and urgent alert call by the Balao family and the private organizations were sent to government authorities, other concerned offices and friends. These were also posted in the internet together with an online petition that may be signed by supporters at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/CPAjamesbalao/ to be sent to the proper government agencies.
James is an old friend, a former “glassmate” during our younger years and so are his brother Winston, his sisters and cousins. Hence, through this column, your assistance and response to this urgent action alert is being sought.
Please send letters, emails or fax messages calling for the immediate surfacing and release of James Balao; for the authorities, particularly the Philippine National Police, to agressively assist the Balao family, the CPA and the Cordillera Human Rights Aliance in their search for James.
Let us ask for the immediate termination of Oplan Bantay Laya which has labeled legal progressive organizations such as the Cordillera Peoples Alliance as "sectoral fronts" of the Communist Party of the Philippines , National Democratic Front of the Philippines and the New Peoples Army.
Let us urge our government to observe the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and other international human rights laws and declarations such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
***
Another violation of human rights occurred a day after James Balao’s abduction. In the evening of Sept. 18, Cesar Reyes, 49, a photojournalist – news correspondent of the Journal Publications figured in a traffic altercation after he accidentally sideswiped a taxicab along Session road sometime past 10pm.
A recent migrant to Baguio (dayo) whose wife is from here, and fearing that taxi drivers who gathered around might gang up on him, he drew his licensed 380 magazine type pistol – a natural reaction if one’s life and limb is threatened and perceived to be in danger. Journalists and bystanders who witnessed the incident said Cesar never pointed the gun to anyone.
Policemen were called in to make the necessary reports of the incident. Apparently in the course of the investigation conducted by the police that time, justice had only one eye blindfolded.
To make the long story short, the license and permit of Cesar’s gun was not submitted to the fiscal in charge as part of the evidence. The reason for that is known only to the investigating police officers.
Cesar Reyes said, aside from paying P2000 for the damages of the taxicab, he even received verbal abuse from Cesar Abrigo, the taxi operator and his companions, even while he was already being investigated by the police.
He was told at the police office that he will soon go home and get his belongings after settlement with Abrigo. But that did not happen as he was brought back and forth from the police office atop Session road to the main police office.
Cesar spent the night and the next day in the hands of policemen who never informed him that an inquest was filed at the fiscal’s office, so that he was not able to call for lawyer’s assistance. He was illegally detained for almost 18 hours before he was formally taken as a prisoner the following day Friday at around 5pm. Cesar was out of jail after paying for his bail on Monday.
Sure as the wind blows, Cesar’s irregular filing of a case against him by his police investigators who tampered and withheld evidences, and the abduction of James Balao by security forces of the state are very clear violations of their rights. Things have become worse under Gloria’s watch. If it is not her fault, then those responsible must be sacked. – marchfianza777@yahoo.com
Igorot clan leader abducted; journalist illegally detained
Has Martial Rule been re-declared – or has it come back without the need for any declaration?
A few days before the observance of the 22nd anniversary of Ninoy’s assassination, the human rights of two private individuals begun to be violated in separate incidents, allegedly by police and military elements, respectively.
Here are their stories. In the morning of Sept. 17, James Balao, 47, was abducted while on his way to his family home in La Trinidad, Benguet from his residence at Fairview Barangay, Baguio City .
He is a member of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance and president of the OCLUPAN Clan Association, an indigenous organization of the Ibaloi and Kankanaey tribes of Benguet.
James had earlier texted his family at around 6:45 in the morning of that day, informing them that he was going home. They said he never reached home and has not been in contact with his family or friends since, nor have they been able to contact him.
In a letter of appeal and urgent call that sought for his re-appearance, the Balao family together with the CPA and the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance said, the surveillance and enforced disappearance of James was perpetrated by state security forces as part of their operations under Oplan Bantay Laya.” They believed the alleged perpetrators were unidentified elements of the Intelligence Security Unit (ISU) of the AFP.
The peoples’ organizations also took note of information by reliable sources that James was “listed in the AFP dossier as the head of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Education Bureau in the Ilocos and Cordillera regions.”
If indeed the military dossier identified James as such, they apparently have done so to justify their acts of purging the membership of organizations perceived by them as “enemies of the state.”
Oplan Bantay Laya has categorized legal people's organizations and their staff and volunteers as "front organizations and supporters" of the of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) or National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) or the New People's Army (NPA).
For example, lawyer and former city councilor Joe Molintas has been the secretary-general of the CPA for quite a time – does that also justify his being branded as a “communist supporter?”
The same policy has led to the surveillance, harassment and intimidation, abduction and killing of members and leaders of progressive people's organizations all over the country. Doesn’t that appear like an orchestrated scenario by the military in their bid to rid society of their so-called enemies? It is time Congress revisits Oplan Bantay Laya.
James is the second victim of enforced disappearance in the CPA since the abduction of Ama Daniel Ngayaan in 1987. After him, hundreds more became victims of orchestrated abductions. To date, Jonas Burgos, son of the late Joe Burgos of Malaya publications, is nowhere to be found.
James had already reported seeing regular surveillance on him and his family since the first week of June this year. The frequency of the surveillance van heightened until his disappearance last week. He had told friends and relatives that he often observed white and blue vans that tailed him from his residence to his daily chores.
The letter of appeal for support and urgent alert call by the Balao family and the private organizations were sent to government authorities, other concerned offices and friends. These were also posted in the internet together with an online petition that may be signed by supporters at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/CPAjamesbalao/ to be sent to the proper government agencies.
James is an old friend, a former “glassmate” during our younger years and so are his brother Winston, his sisters and cousins. Hence, through this column, your assistance and response to this urgent action alert is being sought.
Please send letters, emails or fax messages calling for the immediate surfacing and release of James Balao; for the authorities, particularly the Philippine National Police, to agressively assist the Balao family, the CPA and the Cordillera Human Rights Aliance in their search for James.
Let us ask for the immediate termination of Oplan Bantay Laya which has labeled legal progressive organizations such as the Cordillera Peoples Alliance as "sectoral fronts" of the Communist Party of the Philippines , National Democratic Front of the Philippines and the New Peoples Army.
Let us urge our government to observe the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and other international human rights laws and declarations such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
***
Another violation of human rights occurred a day after James Balao’s abduction. In the evening of Sept. 18, Cesar Reyes, 49, a photojournalist – news correspondent of the Journal Publications figured in a traffic altercation after he accidentally sideswiped a taxicab along Session road sometime past 10pm.
A recent migrant to Baguio (dayo) whose wife is from here, and fearing that taxi drivers who gathered around might gang up on him, he drew his licensed 380 magazine type pistol – a natural reaction if one’s life and limb is threatened and perceived to be in danger. Journalists and bystanders who witnessed the incident said Cesar never pointed the gun to anyone.
Policemen were called in to make the necessary reports of the incident. Apparently in the course of the investigation conducted by the police that time, justice had only one eye blindfolded.
To make the long story short, the license and permit of Cesar’s gun was not submitted to the fiscal in charge as part of the evidence. The reason for that is known only to the investigating police officers.
Cesar Reyes said, aside from paying P2000 for the damages of the taxicab, he even received verbal abuse from Cesar Abrigo, the taxi operator and his companions, even while he was already being investigated by the police.
He was told at the police office that he will soon go home and get his belongings after settlement with Abrigo. But that did not happen as he was brought back and forth from the police office atop Session road to the main police office.
Cesar spent the night and the next day in the hands of policemen who never informed him that an inquest was filed at the fiscal’s office, so that he was not able to call for lawyer’s assistance. He was illegally detained for almost 18 hours before he was formally taken as a prisoner the following day Friday at around 5pm. Cesar was out of jail after paying for his bail on Monday.
Sure as the wind blows, Cesar’s irregular filing of a case against him by his police investigators who tampered and withheld evidences, and the abduction of James Balao by security forces of the state are very clear violations of their rights. Things have become worse under Gloria’s watch. If it is not her fault, then those responsible must be sacked. – marchfianza777@yahoo.com
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
MORE NEWS, IFUGAO
SK festival set Oct 24-26 in Ifugao
LAGAWE, Ifugao – A Sangguniang Kabataan Day festival will be held in this capital town on Oct. 24-26 with activities to foster camaraderie among provincial youth.
“This would provide a day of fun for the youth, said SK federation provincial president and board member Jomar Buyuccan.
Gov. Teddy Baguilat Jr. expresses support to the activity allotting a budget counterpart of P200, 000 citing Buyuccan as a good role model for uniting the youth
Buyuccan authored his first ordinance entitled “An ordinance declaring the fourth Saturday of October as the Sanguniang Kabataan Day” which was approved by Baguilat.
Buyuccan said his ordinance also aimed to create camaraderie among the youth thorugh gatherings so they could plan activities.
The activities on CK Day includes a dinner, prayer, parade, launching of SK Day ordinance, boxing tournament, singing contest, and youth variety show, G-String marathon, launching of the Ifugao State College of Arts and Forestry teen center and closing program.
More than 600 participants are expected to attend and participate in activities.
Buyuccan said he was inviting the media to cover events particularly the the G-string 9 km marathon fun run from Barangay Piwong in Hingyon town up to the Lagawe town plaza.
Members of the organizing committee headed by the PSKF are Lagawe local govnerment unit, provincial governor’s office, Pastor Jimmy Lachaona, Joel Tultog, Emmo Bimohya, Philippine National Police, PSDD headed by Mirriam Baguidudol, Ifugao Provincial Hospital, James Banawol, and the Ifugao Youth Confederation. -- Jun Kindipan Dumar
LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March L. Fianza
Mt. Mongew at MSEAC meet
Through this corner, our local musicians are again appealing for your assistance to a benefit show to help sustain the medication of 10-yr old Mark Anthony Viray, now under chemotherapy treatment for Hodgeskin Lymphoma (cancer).
The young boy who wishes to be a pilot someday was scheduled for six cycles of chemotherapy but his father Ernie, a taxi driver in the city can not afford the treatment. He stopped driving for awhile to attend to his son’s condition. Our local musicians who have been volunteering their God-given talents free for indigent patients in and around Baguio are doing it again in October.
Tickets for the purpose will soon be distributed around. For those of us who wish to help Mark Anthony in any manner, please dial or text his father Ernie Viray at mobile phone no. 09102437707.
***
Last weekend’s Baguio-Benguet meet of the Multi-Sectoral Electrification Advisory Council or MSEAC was quite dull but other matters turned it into an interesting Saturday.
As you travel to Baguio along Halsema highway somewhere between Acop and Camp Dangwa , look to your right towards the direction of Sablan and you will see a mountain peak that rises to about 5000 feet.I pass that section of Halsema and everytime I do, I always ask myself “on whose municipality is it located and what do people call it?”
Kagawad Robert Valentin of Barangay Banengbeng in Sablan, my seatmate at the MSEAC meet, gave me the answer to the question that has kept me wondering for the longest time. My acquaintance from Lepanto who is now retired said the imposing cone is called Mt. Mongew . Mt. Mongew sits on Barangay Banegbeng and straddles the boundary of Sablan and La Trinidad. It can be seen from behind Justice Hill above the Benguet Capitol or from the top of the mountain above the Buyagan cemetery in La Trinidad.
It can be reached by boarding a jeepney from T. Alonzo street in Baguio, pass behind the Benguet Capitol or through Barangay Wangal, La Trinidad, get off at the Ebbes Elementary School in Banengbeng and hike along a two-kilometer dirt road until you reach its dead-end that is 100 meters below the mountain peak.
As chairman of the tourism committee in Banengbeng, Kagawad Valentin opened a proposal to the council for Mt. Mongew to be registered in the municipal books as an eco-tourism park.With the eventual approval by the Sablan municipal council through the tourism committee of Councilor Romulo Polon, the same could easily be recognized as an eco-park by other tourism offices in the province as well as the tourism regional office under Dir. Pura Molintas.
As compared to three more popular hiking sites, namely Mt. Pulag in Bokod and Kabayan, Mt. Ugu in Itogon and Mt. Santo Tomas in Tuba; Mt. Mongew is a “moderate” mission for nature explorers. Mt. Pulag is a long hike from Ambangeg or Palansa and will take you two to three days to enjoy, while Mt. Ugu is a long and steep climb from Tinongdan Central to Domolpos that will also need three days to enjoy utmost. Mt. Santo Tomas is “too near civilization,” you will be overlooking the City of Pines as if you never left it. That makes Mt. Mongew the best choice for one-day adventurers.
Manong Robert said that on top of Mt. Mongew , one will enjoy the sight of China Sea , both day and night. “The beam of a cargo ship sailing towards the La Union coastline at night is so bright that it lights up the foot trails of farmers,” he said.
I have not been on top of Mt. Mongew but I know that with its peak elevation it provides a vantage point overlooking the rolling hills of Kapangan, southwestern part of Kibungan and La Union areas adjacent to Benguet. If Kagawad Valentin’s proposal pushes through, Mt. Mongew as the latest addition to the list of tourist destinations in Benguet and the world could prove to be an income-generating project for Barangay Banengbeng, the neighboring barangays of Baluay and Bagong and the municipality as a whole.
In Sagada, the LGU collects very affordable registration fees from all visitors for the maintenance of their tourist sites. Their pattern may be copied and may be applied by Banengbeng. Reaching the top and being one with Kabunyan, towering over a wicked world below in a 360-degree viewpoint, or experiencing physical exercise under the sun, wind and rain may not be the ultimate attractions to Mt. Mongew .
The LGU barangay can designate camping sites for backpackers and for anyone who would wish to spend a night or two on Mt. Mongew . I for one would love to once again hoist my old yellow tent on Mt. Mongew.Perhaps, that can come to life if a camping trip composed of tourism promoters in the media is organized someday, in coordination with Banengbeng Barangay. If the activity is for the benefit of Sablan, I am quite sure Mayor Bony Tacio and his council will be amenable to this.
It is ironic that others wished for tourism spots in their areas, while here is Sablan that has the abundance of that sort. The sites do not have to be commercially developed as these are most attractive in their virginity – they only have to be promoted. *** I received some comments regarding the MSEAC meet held last week. Some members said it was their first time to know new information about the Benguet Electric Coop. while others said the meeting provided a venue for them to learn about Beneco facts that they did not know before.
With that, I had the suspicion that for the longest time since it was organized in 1973, not so much management-client interaction happened until this was realized by the new administration. It looks like Beneco should conduct more information-education campaigns in every barangay that it serves. A continuing IEC will benefit both the management and the member-consumers.
Those who attended were the respective officers representing the MSEAC of each of the 13 Benguet towns and the EC districts in Baguio . Many of them expected the meeting to present the relationship between MSEAC and the Beneco board.
While the key words in the title are “Advisory Council,” its functions were not presented, as far as Sablan MSEAC chair Steve Busoy was concerned. Indeed, the meeting presented matters about the electric cooperative, the EPIRA and NEA, as shown in the parts of the program.
This prompted some members who were still around after the meeting was adjourned, to discuss about future activities for the MSEAC as a true “advisory council” to the Beneco BOD, not merely organized in compliance with a NEA directive. – marchfianza777@yahoo.com
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March Fianza
Fighting the rice cartel; Willie B
I heard my late manong Steve Hamada call him Willie B. He is no other than Benguet’s new Provincial Prosecutor – William Bacoling. I have fond memories of him when he first worked with the late Bembo Afable, Provincial Legal Officer. I have other stories about Fiscal Willy before he “returned to the fold of the law” and eventually work for government.
Anyway that is for another article. He will be taking his oath, tomorrow Monday, to be administered by Gov. Nestor Fongwan who, I heard, is ready to give all his support to Justice Hill, financially or otherwise. Congratulations Apo Prosecutor William Bacoling. You are happier than Mondax today, even as both of you celebrate your birthdays, because you will be taking your oath while he is busy covering the sisterhood ties between Vallejo, Calif and Baguio. Friends and relatives wish you all the best.
***
Everytime I find myself in Abatan, I always buy a ganta of Kintoman or red rice in the public market. The market also serves as the trading post for assorted farm products such as lowland vegetables brought from as far as Cervantes, Ilocos Sur; beans (bukel) from Patyakan below Besao, fresh water fishes from Tinglayan in Kalinga and even wood products from Ifugao.
Aside from the Kintoman type, backyard rice farmers plant brown rice, black rice (balatinao) and glutinous rice for rice cake (kankanen). They can be found in ricefields around Mt. Data in Bauko, in areas irrigated by the Agno River in the east such as Buguias, down to Kabayan, Bokod, Itogon and the contiguous lowland communities of Eastern Pangasinan; and Eastern Ilocos ricefields irrigated by the Abra and Amburayan rivers.
In Benguet and Mt. Province , certain towns grow Kintoman for home use or for future rituals. Farmers plant this type in the middle area of their rice fields and exchange this for other basic needs or sell their harvest in the nearest public market. But the supply is not available all year round.
This style of trading is still practiced especially in communities where cash is not always on hand. It characterizes the actual economic situation of non-commercial farmers in the countryside.
What is pointed out here is that upland and lowland communities basically are involved in rice farming. The situation does not change in other parts of the country. Wherever you go by land, you traverse ricefields managed by local businessmen or maintained by families for personal consumption.
Rice farmers hoard a year’s supply for their own consumption and sell the rest for cash to buy other needs. This tells us that “there is no rice shortage” in the country – a factual situation that is confirmed by farmers in Isabela, Tabuk, Nueva Ecija and the Ilocos.
Local and foreign agriculturists insist on the same report. They say the problem is that the “supply does not meet the demand because of businessmen-hoarders.” This results to higher rice prices in the market that continues to rise because of other factors such as high fertilizer cost.
Other economists say the “rice shortage scare” is partly caused by the government not investing enough in the agricultural sector to make it more productive, the fact that we have poor irrigation and farming or marketing support is too little.
And while it has knowledge of these facts, the government still allows the indiscriminate conversion of rice lands for commercial, industrial and residential development that has turned the country from “rice exporter to importer.”
The country’s national daily consumption is estimated to be at 34,000 tons. Agriculturists and economists in the US estimate that Filipinos consume around 12 to 15 million metric tons a year.
It imports between 1 million to 2.5 million tons each year that is around 10 per cent of its total consumption. The government is expected to buy 2.7 million tons this year worth P58 billion
Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barganza Jr. submitted a bill that might be the means to stop government spending on rice imports and may yet prove to be the answer to a rice farmer’s miseries. Among President Arroyo’s partymates, Rep. Barganza may be the only guy who is making sense.
He is urging government to peg a premium price for all locally produced rice and buy all of these to help defray farmers’ expenses. In this way, government will be ‘hitting two birds with one stone’ as it would be helping all local rice farmers finance their ricefields, whether commercial or non-commercial, and would be lowering rice imports at the same time.
In the event that Barganza’s proposal is approved, businessmen-hoarders will disappear from the picture one by one and rice prices would naturally go down.
Farm experts also assessed the country’s situation saying that instead of spending on rice imports, the government can use the money better by improving farm irrigation systems to support Filipino farmers.
Upland and lowland rice farmers know that putting in place irrigation systems allow them to prepare their ricefields for planting even in the dry months. Farmers who own rain-fed ricefields can only harvest once in a year. Of the country’s 3.1 million hectares of irrigable lands, only 46 per cent is irrigated.
Studies revealed that the country has to spend around P40 billion pesos annually on building new irrigation facilities while maintaining existing ones, but government spends only about P20 billion a year for these. It spends almost P60 billion to import rice.
Even the Rice Watch and Action Network (RWAN or R1), a non-government organization said, the country can not always be relying on rice imports to meet its demand because “what will happen if rice exporters decide not to sell?”
True enough, Thailand , Pakistan , India , Egypt , Cambodia and Vietnam imposed rice export restrictions to their neighbors early this year.
Unless the government pours more funds for improvement of irrigation systems and scientific farming, self-sufficiency will always be a dream. – marchfianza777@yahoo.com
Fighting the rice cartel; Willie B
I heard my late manong Steve Hamada call him Willie B. He is no other than Benguet’s new Provincial Prosecutor – William Bacoling. I have fond memories of him when he first worked with the late Bembo Afable, Provincial Legal Officer. I have other stories about Fiscal Willy before he “returned to the fold of the law” and eventually work for government.
Anyway that is for another article. He will be taking his oath, tomorrow Monday, to be administered by Gov. Nestor Fongwan who, I heard, is ready to give all his support to Justice Hill, financially or otherwise. Congratulations Apo Prosecutor William Bacoling. You are happier than Mondax today, even as both of you celebrate your birthdays, because you will be taking your oath while he is busy covering the sisterhood ties between Vallejo, Calif and Baguio. Friends and relatives wish you all the best.
***
Everytime I find myself in Abatan, I always buy a ganta of Kintoman or red rice in the public market. The market also serves as the trading post for assorted farm products such as lowland vegetables brought from as far as Cervantes, Ilocos Sur; beans (bukel) from Patyakan below Besao, fresh water fishes from Tinglayan in Kalinga and even wood products from Ifugao.
Aside from the Kintoman type, backyard rice farmers plant brown rice, black rice (balatinao) and glutinous rice for rice cake (kankanen). They can be found in ricefields around Mt. Data in Bauko, in areas irrigated by the Agno River in the east such as Buguias, down to Kabayan, Bokod, Itogon and the contiguous lowland communities of Eastern Pangasinan; and Eastern Ilocos ricefields irrigated by the Abra and Amburayan rivers.
In Benguet and Mt. Province , certain towns grow Kintoman for home use or for future rituals. Farmers plant this type in the middle area of their rice fields and exchange this for other basic needs or sell their harvest in the nearest public market. But the supply is not available all year round.
This style of trading is still practiced especially in communities where cash is not always on hand. It characterizes the actual economic situation of non-commercial farmers in the countryside.
What is pointed out here is that upland and lowland communities basically are involved in rice farming. The situation does not change in other parts of the country. Wherever you go by land, you traverse ricefields managed by local businessmen or maintained by families for personal consumption.
Rice farmers hoard a year’s supply for their own consumption and sell the rest for cash to buy other needs. This tells us that “there is no rice shortage” in the country – a factual situation that is confirmed by farmers in Isabela, Tabuk, Nueva Ecija and the Ilocos.
Local and foreign agriculturists insist on the same report. They say the problem is that the “supply does not meet the demand because of businessmen-hoarders.” This results to higher rice prices in the market that continues to rise because of other factors such as high fertilizer cost.
Other economists say the “rice shortage scare” is partly caused by the government not investing enough in the agricultural sector to make it more productive, the fact that we have poor irrigation and farming or marketing support is too little.
And while it has knowledge of these facts, the government still allows the indiscriminate conversion of rice lands for commercial, industrial and residential development that has turned the country from “rice exporter to importer.”
The country’s national daily consumption is estimated to be at 34,000 tons. Agriculturists and economists in the US estimate that Filipinos consume around 12 to 15 million metric tons a year.
It imports between 1 million to 2.5 million tons each year that is around 10 per cent of its total consumption. The government is expected to buy 2.7 million tons this year worth P58 billion
Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barganza Jr. submitted a bill that might be the means to stop government spending on rice imports and may yet prove to be the answer to a rice farmer’s miseries. Among President Arroyo’s partymates, Rep. Barganza may be the only guy who is making sense.
He is urging government to peg a premium price for all locally produced rice and buy all of these to help defray farmers’ expenses. In this way, government will be ‘hitting two birds with one stone’ as it would be helping all local rice farmers finance their ricefields, whether commercial or non-commercial, and would be lowering rice imports at the same time.
In the event that Barganza’s proposal is approved, businessmen-hoarders will disappear from the picture one by one and rice prices would naturally go down.
Farm experts also assessed the country’s situation saying that instead of spending on rice imports, the government can use the money better by improving farm irrigation systems to support Filipino farmers.
Upland and lowland rice farmers know that putting in place irrigation systems allow them to prepare their ricefields for planting even in the dry months. Farmers who own rain-fed ricefields can only harvest once in a year. Of the country’s 3.1 million hectares of irrigable lands, only 46 per cent is irrigated.
Studies revealed that the country has to spend around P40 billion pesos annually on building new irrigation facilities while maintaining existing ones, but government spends only about P20 billion a year for these. It spends almost P60 billion to import rice.
Even the Rice Watch and Action Network (RWAN or R1), a non-government organization said, the country can not always be relying on rice imports to meet its demand because “what will happen if rice exporters decide not to sell?”
True enough, Thailand , Pakistan , India , Egypt , Cambodia and Vietnam imposed rice export restrictions to their neighbors early this year.
Unless the government pours more funds for improvement of irrigation systems and scientific farming, self-sufficiency will always be a dream. – marchfianza777@yahoo.com
Monday, September 8, 2008
LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March L. Fianza
The bingoteng of some barangay ‘Kupitanes’
Finally, officers of the Association of Barangay Councils in Baguio City regained consciousness and recognized the “wrong step” they made when they endorsed the operations of ‘bingoteng’ in the barangays. The rest of the members are still “unconscious.”
They also have come to realize lately that the project that some of their past officials flaunted as a very good money-making barangay activity is not generating enough income after all. “Money-making” for the proponents, maybe, but not for all.
According to the association’s own report that came out in newspapers, they earned P113,000 from May to August. I take that as their net income after paying the salaries of their employees and the kubradores, and taking away from the gross all the rest of their operating expenses – including the ‘kupit,’ and others.
The ABC officials cited in their resolution of withdrawal of support that “there is no transparency” on money matters, further citing moral issues. Palma-Urbano Barangay head Albert Reyes earlier warned his colleagues in the association that the ‘bingoteng’ is creating a gap between the members.
“We better stop it because it is causing a division among barangay heads,” he said. At least 60 out of the 128 barangays in Baguio favored ‘bingoteng’ as a source of “livelihood.” The rest of the 68 or more were unsupportive.
But Reyes does not agree. There are other means by which barangays can earn decent income by putting up sari-sari stores, solid waste management and establishing handicraft businesses, among others.
The ABC officials who signed the resolution withdrawing their support for Bingo sa Barangay were William Domoguen of Malcolm Square, vice president Eva Fianza of Happy Homes, Peter Bosaing, Romualdo Ullatan, Michael Perez of Aurora Hill, Benjie Macadangdang of Lower Lourdes and Marvin Binay-an of Camp 7.
With that resolution signed by the ABC officers, anti-gambling groups expect that similar acts of withdrawal by the other barangay heads from the operations of bingoteng in the city snowballs.
I hope this time new COP Willie Franco, a Baguio boy, makes a difference and announces an uncompromising stand to support what the ABC officers have started – even minus a resolution from the barangay. The observation is that newly installed police heads always make familiar lip service speeches about fighting criminality.
By the way, dividing the ‘bingoteng’ proceeds of P113,000.00 among the 60 barangays is equal to a share of P1,883.00 per barangay. Dividing the same proceeds into four months – that is from May to August – will give you P28,250.00 per month. Divide that by 30 days, you get P941.67 per day.
Divide that into three draws per day, you get P313.89 per draw.
If my arithmetic is correct, unless there are profits that not even the ABC members know about, then your Bingo sa Barangay project after paying all expenses, earns a decent income of more than P313 per draw only.
Okay, divide P313.89 by 60 barangays, each draw earns a profit of P5.23 for each of the 60 barangays. Well, bless you and your constituents dear barangay ‘Kupitan.’ Bingoteng is indeed not so lucrative after all, but profitable for a few.
That is just the income contributions from the 60 barangays that supported ‘bingoteng.’ What about the collections of the ‘kubradores’ from ‘tayadores’ in the rest of the 68 barangays and the collections from ‘tayadores’ outside of Baguio? How is that accounted for? Do they also share from the proceeds? Into whose pockets do these collections go? Every ABC member is entitled to know.
The proponents call it Bingo sa Barangay but it does not resemble any good bingo game that we know because the winning tickets have number combinations similar to Jueteng. The manner by which the winning number combinations is picked is also done the Jueteng way. So that many appropriately call it bingoteng.
The proponents justified their project as income generating as it offered opportunities of employment for the kubradores. But that is not a valid reason to allow its operations. Although a line splits the legality of an act and the morality of it, in gambling the end does not justify the means.
Bingoteng has infected the nearby town of La Trinidad and the other barangays of Benguet as well. I was also told that a former barangay official in the city approached some barangay officials in that municipality and proposed a similar operation of bingoteng there.
Somehow, his proposal pushed through, although illegally, as the jueteng kubradores in that town now collect from tayadores number combinations chosen from 1 to 38. Of course, the 16 barangays in La Trinidad do not benefit from the proceeds of bingoteng there. If that is so, then who? – marchfianza777@yahoo.com
Sunday, August 31, 2008
LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March L. Fianza
My dear Baguio
I hope you will not find this letter so corny. Anyway, records say you are 99 years old, although many of your children of a silent past believe you are older than that. I also believe you already had a share of the good life even before carpet baggers from Manila collaborated with the Americans to give you the name “Baguio.”
They subdivided you into “zones” but at the same time, tucked pieces of prime lands under their names. Whatever happened to you in the past, we wish you a very happy birthday and may you have more birthdays to come. As you set to live a hundred, I hope that the people who run your affairs today, including us, have all the time and energy to correct the wrongs that happened to you in the past.
As you celebrate your 99th anniversary tomorrow, I would just want to revisit some things about how you lost your lands and forests to logging concessionaires, realtors and the mining companies. I personally experienced some of these while some were read from old reports and heard from my old folks.
You were looked upon as the beauty of the sub-province of Benguet and her capital town when you were yet to become a chartered city on September 1, 1909; aside from being baptized as the Summer Capital of the Philippines by the Philippine Commission on June 1, 1903. In 1916, La Trinidad, your older sister took over as the capital of Benguet.
The establishment of communal forests followed with the issuance of Proclamation No. 15 in April 1922 by Gov. Gen. Leonard Wood that proclaimed Busol as a forest reservation. Along with that proclamation was an American colonial title issued in favor of one of your daughters Kalomis for a tract of land alongside the Busol reservation.
In trying to analyze the twin issuances, I have become more convinced that the Kalomis property sits alongside the Busol reservation, not overlapping each other. Even the Supreme Court upholds that in a recent decision it issued. It now turns out that the facilities of a water utility company are built inside a private title. But that is another story which can be discussed in the future.
The American period was the time of exploitation of your forests and the natural resources of your sister towns in Benguet. Two sawmills at that time were already operating in Sto. Tomas and Irisan. Incidentally, if not deliberately, a forest license to cut an “allowable annual quota” of 3,000 cubic meters of Pine lumber from forests inside and around Baguio was issued by the government to the Benguet Commercial Company, an entity established in 1902 by Governor HP Whitmarsh.
In 1923, the Benguet Electric Co. was in operation in the Agno River . It was installed to support mining and logging activities. It was mining that consumed the timber and water from your forests. In fact, mining activities below you continue to suck water from your watersheds today. The volume of water and lumber that your constituents and your sister La Trinidad consumed was insignificant in comparison to the volume required by the tunnels and mills in the mining camps.
The Heald Lumber Company, even before becoming incorporated in 1934, already had its glory days logging over most of your forested areas here to the north in Mt. Data . Together with the Bobok Timber Project, the Pine wood sawmills supported the booming gold mines in Lepanto and Itogon.
To justify what they did to your Pine forests, the Americans in 1936 issued Proclamations 581 and 634, respectively opening Mt. Sto . Tomas and Mt. Data to “controlled” logging. It was in this period that migrants of job seekers and businessmen of all sorts from the neighboring provinces migrated into your lands.
The mining camps established by the Americans in Lepanto and Itogon served as magnets to thousands of job seekers who later became permanent squatters in your bosom. From a sleepy mountain district envisioned for at least 30,000 souls, you now hold within your seams a population of more than 300,000.
More communal forests opened in the municipal districts of Bokod, particularly Bobok, Ambangeg and Banao; and Ampusongan in Bakun. These forests, including those at Asin, Irisan and Kennon were not spared by the concessionaires.
Aside from licensed businessmen, Manila real estate brokers and almost anyone who had the proper connections got involved in the mining and logging industries. In Busol, an American named Federly was permitted to open a logging road, cut timber for firewood that was delivered to the old Pines Hotel (later to become Vallejo Inn) for heating the fireplace and firing the ovens of bakeries in the city.
Today, the laws are unjustly applied on your sons and daughters everytime they gather just a little firewood for home use – something that the government did not enforce when the Americans were raping your forests.
And those who manage your affairs today do not exactly tell your children the truth. It should be enough that a part of the Busol forest was segregated for squatters who were relocated during the time of Mayor Lardizabal. These lands were chopped off by means of an agreement called the “Lardizabal-Biado line.”
These were named the Workingmen’s Village, Bayan Park and Brookespoint. These were originally part of the Busol Pine forest. Similarly, other squatter relocation sites were established in Quezon Hill, QM Subd., Holy Ghost Hill and Quirino Hill.
Many of those who benefited from the Busol segregation and who now occupy the Workingmen’s Village – Bayan Park – Brookespoint relocation sites are relatives of present-day politicians. Adjacent to these sites is the Kalomis property.
Now, while the relatives of these politicians and other beneficiaries of the squatters’ relocation sites enjoy their occupancy undisturbed, the descendants of Kalomis never built a single house nor introduced any development into the land they rightfully owned. They do not have the courage to squat on their own property. The land has practically become a buffer zone between the larger part of Busol and the relocation sites.
My dear Baguio , more than 52,300 households are now inside your domain of 50 square kilometers. Still, the government does not stop selling your lands. With that, you will encounter more problems as you are experiencing now. Your children will not have enough water to drink and there will be more garbage to get rid of. If your caretakers will not have solutions to these problems, you will be stinking head to foot and many of your children will surely die.
I just wish and pray that your officials will sincerely stop being the padrinos to squatters and concentrate on solving the water and garbage problem. Anyway, happy birthday again. Your grandson, March.
P.S. Pls. tell your officials to stop townsite sales applications (TSA) now because you are not growing any bigger. More TSAs means more houses that will surely contribute to the water and garbage problem. – marchfianza777@yahoo.com
My dear Baguio
I hope you will not find this letter so corny. Anyway, records say you are 99 years old, although many of your children of a silent past believe you are older than that. I also believe you already had a share of the good life even before carpet baggers from Manila collaborated with the Americans to give you the name “Baguio.”
They subdivided you into “zones” but at the same time, tucked pieces of prime lands under their names. Whatever happened to you in the past, we wish you a very happy birthday and may you have more birthdays to come. As you set to live a hundred, I hope that the people who run your affairs today, including us, have all the time and energy to correct the wrongs that happened to you in the past.
As you celebrate your 99th anniversary tomorrow, I would just want to revisit some things about how you lost your lands and forests to logging concessionaires, realtors and the mining companies. I personally experienced some of these while some were read from old reports and heard from my old folks.
You were looked upon as the beauty of the sub-province of Benguet and her capital town when you were yet to become a chartered city on September 1, 1909; aside from being baptized as the Summer Capital of the Philippines by the Philippine Commission on June 1, 1903. In 1916, La Trinidad, your older sister took over as the capital of Benguet.
The establishment of communal forests followed with the issuance of Proclamation No. 15 in April 1922 by Gov. Gen. Leonard Wood that proclaimed Busol as a forest reservation. Along with that proclamation was an American colonial title issued in favor of one of your daughters Kalomis for a tract of land alongside the Busol reservation.
In trying to analyze the twin issuances, I have become more convinced that the Kalomis property sits alongside the Busol reservation, not overlapping each other. Even the Supreme Court upholds that in a recent decision it issued. It now turns out that the facilities of a water utility company are built inside a private title. But that is another story which can be discussed in the future.
The American period was the time of exploitation of your forests and the natural resources of your sister towns in Benguet. Two sawmills at that time were already operating in Sto. Tomas and Irisan. Incidentally, if not deliberately, a forest license to cut an “allowable annual quota” of 3,000 cubic meters of Pine lumber from forests inside and around Baguio was issued by the government to the Benguet Commercial Company, an entity established in 1902 by Governor HP Whitmarsh.
In 1923, the Benguet Electric Co. was in operation in the Agno River . It was installed to support mining and logging activities. It was mining that consumed the timber and water from your forests. In fact, mining activities below you continue to suck water from your watersheds today. The volume of water and lumber that your constituents and your sister La Trinidad consumed was insignificant in comparison to the volume required by the tunnels and mills in the mining camps.
The Heald Lumber Company, even before becoming incorporated in 1934, already had its glory days logging over most of your forested areas here to the north in Mt. Data . Together with the Bobok Timber Project, the Pine wood sawmills supported the booming gold mines in Lepanto and Itogon.
To justify what they did to your Pine forests, the Americans in 1936 issued Proclamations 581 and 634, respectively opening Mt. Sto . Tomas and Mt. Data to “controlled” logging. It was in this period that migrants of job seekers and businessmen of all sorts from the neighboring provinces migrated into your lands.
The mining camps established by the Americans in Lepanto and Itogon served as magnets to thousands of job seekers who later became permanent squatters in your bosom. From a sleepy mountain district envisioned for at least 30,000 souls, you now hold within your seams a population of more than 300,000.
More communal forests opened in the municipal districts of Bokod, particularly Bobok, Ambangeg and Banao; and Ampusongan in Bakun. These forests, including those at Asin, Irisan and Kennon were not spared by the concessionaires.
Aside from licensed businessmen, Manila real estate brokers and almost anyone who had the proper connections got involved in the mining and logging industries. In Busol, an American named Federly was permitted to open a logging road, cut timber for firewood that was delivered to the old Pines Hotel (later to become Vallejo Inn) for heating the fireplace and firing the ovens of bakeries in the city.
Today, the laws are unjustly applied on your sons and daughters everytime they gather just a little firewood for home use – something that the government did not enforce when the Americans were raping your forests.
And those who manage your affairs today do not exactly tell your children the truth. It should be enough that a part of the Busol forest was segregated for squatters who were relocated during the time of Mayor Lardizabal. These lands were chopped off by means of an agreement called the “Lardizabal-Biado line.”
These were named the Workingmen’s Village, Bayan Park and Brookespoint. These were originally part of the Busol Pine forest. Similarly, other squatter relocation sites were established in Quezon Hill, QM Subd., Holy Ghost Hill and Quirino Hill.
Many of those who benefited from the Busol segregation and who now occupy the Workingmen’s Village – Bayan Park – Brookespoint relocation sites are relatives of present-day politicians. Adjacent to these sites is the Kalomis property.
Now, while the relatives of these politicians and other beneficiaries of the squatters’ relocation sites enjoy their occupancy undisturbed, the descendants of Kalomis never built a single house nor introduced any development into the land they rightfully owned. They do not have the courage to squat on their own property. The land has practically become a buffer zone between the larger part of Busol and the relocation sites.
My dear Baguio , more than 52,300 households are now inside your domain of 50 square kilometers. Still, the government does not stop selling your lands. With that, you will encounter more problems as you are experiencing now. Your children will not have enough water to drink and there will be more garbage to get rid of. If your caretakers will not have solutions to these problems, you will be stinking head to foot and many of your children will surely die.
I just wish and pray that your officials will sincerely stop being the padrinos to squatters and concentrate on solving the water and garbage problem. Anyway, happy birthday again. Your grandson, March.
P.S. Pls. tell your officials to stop townsite sales applications (TSA) now because you are not growing any bigger. More TSAs means more houses that will surely contribute to the water and garbage problem. – marchfianza777@yahoo.com
Monday, August 25, 2008
LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March L. Fianza
Cordillera’s stunted growth
Publisher-Editor Eli Refuerzo’s main headline last month entitled “Cordillera lags behind other regions – RDC,” an article by Ramon Dacawi, tells us the truth about this mountain region’s present situation.
Despite an increase in the growth rate of the region’s gross domestic product from 2.3 per cent in 2001 to 2006 to 3.5 per cent in 2007, the Regional Development Council said it was “still way below the national growth rate of 7.2 per cent.”
This, even as the region’s paved national roads also “increased from 29 per cent to 36 per cent” last year. But contrary to the headline, the RDC report said Cordillera “posted a 96.9 per cent employment rate last year” – that is “3.2 per cent higher than the national employment rate of 93.7 per cent.”
Acting RDC chair Juan Ngalob, director of the National Economic Development Authority or NEDA, an acronym that I jokingly translate as “Never-Ending-Data-Accumulation,” announced the “sori” situation in his “sora” or State Of the Region Address during Cordillera’s 21st anniversary as an administrative region.
By way of the RDC report, Sir John is saying that the region may yet become more progressive than what it is today if it pushes anew an effort for regional autonomy.
But looking at Muslim Mindanao’s “progress” which has been every Philippine president’s baby since Quezon, and comparing that with the way our country’s national leaders extend skimpy development assistance to the Cordillera, I share the sentiment of many that autonomy after all, may not appear as a solution.
The Cordillera Administrative Region pales in comparison to the “very special treatment” the ARMM gets from the central government, the latest of which was the merging of innocent barangays into a Bangsamoro ancestral domain and bypassing in the process the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act which calls for consultations with tribal community-stakeholders.
Despite its "autonomous" nature, the ARMM receives approximately 98% of its operating revenue from the national government, and has yet to create additional sources of revenue.
During his term, President Ramos assured the release of almost P14 Billion to implement development projects in the ARMM. But a tour around the ARMM provinces together with
Cordillera regional directors in 1997 showed us no development worth P14 Billion.
Though no discussions ensued with the Cordillera directors whom we were with on that trip, I knew that everyone had the same question in mind: “where did the money go?”
Understandably, officials in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), many of whom were Malacanang lackeys, would protect all interests and objectives – both personal and regional, in contrast to what more legitimate and elected leaders want.
By them taking a closer look at their own version of autonomy, maybe it is best that Cordillera listens to what Mindanao ’s duly elected leaders say about it. Through a plebiscite in 1989, the predominantly Christian residents and Christianized tribes of the 14 provinces and 10 cities preferred to stay out of the ARMM and chose to move ahead on their own like they always did.
My Marawi informant said that “even under an autonomous set-up plus the preferential treatment they get from the central government, peace and true development are elusive.”
These elements lend us the strong feeling that probably if the “special treatment” offered to Mindanao was also given to the Cordillera, even minus an autonomous government; our region could have been better of than the rest – setting aside possibilities that the manna from Malacanang will not go the pockets of a few.
Although a little fault is blamed on the bad treatment we get from Manila , there are other reasons why Cordillera lags behind other regions in terms of development.
Cordillera growth is delayed or shall we say stunted because development is concentrated in the central hubs that serve as “melting pots” and become too crowded. Take a second look at Baguio , Philex Mines, Balatoc-Acupan-Atok-Virac, La Trinidad, Abatan, Mankayan, Bontoc, Banaue, Lagawe, Tabuk, Bangued, Kabugao, Luna, Sta. Marcela and other populated centers.
If overcrowding populations in these parts are not dispersed, the region’s growth velocity will reach a maximum limit. Hence, the need to find ways to distribute population growth in crowded centers.
An answer to that may yet be found in exploiting our natural resources that sit untouched in all other provinces in the Cordillera, outside of Benguet. On mineral deposits, for example, it has been proven worldwide that mining sites become overnight magnets for employment and business opportunities. Thus, creating new population centers but dispersing overcrowded areas. “ California gold rush” illustrates this.
I have the feeling that once the other provinces open up and start exploiting their natural resources, Cordillera development will move faster. Perhaps “autonomy” will become a thing of the past. And when that time comes, I will no longer hear the one liner: “Benguet, land of the Mountain Province.”
But if we do not wish to open up our resources in the provinces and do not share with fellow Cordillerans, then we better stop clamoring for regional autonomy.
***
By way of this column may I reiterate the city government’s invitation to all golf enthusiasts in the city and nearby provinces to a pre-centennial golf tournament at the Baguio Country Club and the Camp John Hay Golf Club.
The campaign for the 2009 Centennial Celebrations of the city of Baguio will be on August 30 and 31 (this coming Saturday and Sunday), said Bishop Carlito Cenzon, a member of the Centennial Commission.
Tournament Director Retired General Nelson Eslao said that the tournament format will be Molave for players with handicaps and System 36 for players without handicaps.
Bishop Cenzon said, some 400 invited players will play in one of the venues for P1,200. Golf club sponsors waived the green fees. Trophies and other prizes await the winners. He said the golf tournament which is sponsored by the city government will help raise funds for the different activities in the 2009 centennial anniversary and would be able to support the sports activities slated by Dr. Charles Cheng. – marchfianza777@yahoo.com
Cordillera’s stunted growth
Publisher-Editor Eli Refuerzo’s main headline last month entitled “Cordillera lags behind other regions – RDC,” an article by Ramon Dacawi, tells us the truth about this mountain region’s present situation.
Despite an increase in the growth rate of the region’s gross domestic product from 2.3 per cent in 2001 to 2006 to 3.5 per cent in 2007, the Regional Development Council said it was “still way below the national growth rate of 7.2 per cent.”
This, even as the region’s paved national roads also “increased from 29 per cent to 36 per cent” last year. But contrary to the headline, the RDC report said Cordillera “posted a 96.9 per cent employment rate last year” – that is “3.2 per cent higher than the national employment rate of 93.7 per cent.”
Acting RDC chair Juan Ngalob, director of the National Economic Development Authority or NEDA, an acronym that I jokingly translate as “Never-Ending-Data-Accumulation,” announced the “sori” situation in his “sora” or State Of the Region Address during Cordillera’s 21st anniversary as an administrative region.
By way of the RDC report, Sir John is saying that the region may yet become more progressive than what it is today if it pushes anew an effort for regional autonomy.
But looking at Muslim Mindanao’s “progress” which has been every Philippine president’s baby since Quezon, and comparing that with the way our country’s national leaders extend skimpy development assistance to the Cordillera, I share the sentiment of many that autonomy after all, may not appear as a solution.
The Cordillera Administrative Region pales in comparison to the “very special treatment” the ARMM gets from the central government, the latest of which was the merging of innocent barangays into a Bangsamoro ancestral domain and bypassing in the process the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act which calls for consultations with tribal community-stakeholders.
Despite its "autonomous" nature, the ARMM receives approximately 98% of its operating revenue from the national government, and has yet to create additional sources of revenue.
During his term, President Ramos assured the release of almost P14 Billion to implement development projects in the ARMM. But a tour around the ARMM provinces together with
Cordillera regional directors in 1997 showed us no development worth P14 Billion.
Though no discussions ensued with the Cordillera directors whom we were with on that trip, I knew that everyone had the same question in mind: “where did the money go?”
Understandably, officials in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), many of whom were Malacanang lackeys, would protect all interests and objectives – both personal and regional, in contrast to what more legitimate and elected leaders want.
By them taking a closer look at their own version of autonomy, maybe it is best that Cordillera listens to what Mindanao ’s duly elected leaders say about it. Through a plebiscite in 1989, the predominantly Christian residents and Christianized tribes of the 14 provinces and 10 cities preferred to stay out of the ARMM and chose to move ahead on their own like they always did.
My Marawi informant said that “even under an autonomous set-up plus the preferential treatment they get from the central government, peace and true development are elusive.”
These elements lend us the strong feeling that probably if the “special treatment” offered to Mindanao was also given to the Cordillera, even minus an autonomous government; our region could have been better of than the rest – setting aside possibilities that the manna from Malacanang will not go the pockets of a few.
Although a little fault is blamed on the bad treatment we get from Manila , there are other reasons why Cordillera lags behind other regions in terms of development.
Cordillera growth is delayed or shall we say stunted because development is concentrated in the central hubs that serve as “melting pots” and become too crowded. Take a second look at Baguio , Philex Mines, Balatoc-Acupan-Atok-Virac, La Trinidad, Abatan, Mankayan, Bontoc, Banaue, Lagawe, Tabuk, Bangued, Kabugao, Luna, Sta. Marcela and other populated centers.
If overcrowding populations in these parts are not dispersed, the region’s growth velocity will reach a maximum limit. Hence, the need to find ways to distribute population growth in crowded centers.
An answer to that may yet be found in exploiting our natural resources that sit untouched in all other provinces in the Cordillera, outside of Benguet. On mineral deposits, for example, it has been proven worldwide that mining sites become overnight magnets for employment and business opportunities. Thus, creating new population centers but dispersing overcrowded areas. “ California gold rush” illustrates this.
I have the feeling that once the other provinces open up and start exploiting their natural resources, Cordillera development will move faster. Perhaps “autonomy” will become a thing of the past. And when that time comes, I will no longer hear the one liner: “Benguet, land of the Mountain Province.”
But if we do not wish to open up our resources in the provinces and do not share with fellow Cordillerans, then we better stop clamoring for regional autonomy.
***
By way of this column may I reiterate the city government’s invitation to all golf enthusiasts in the city and nearby provinces to a pre-centennial golf tournament at the Baguio Country Club and the Camp John Hay Golf Club.
The campaign for the 2009 Centennial Celebrations of the city of Baguio will be on August 30 and 31 (this coming Saturday and Sunday), said Bishop Carlito Cenzon, a member of the Centennial Commission.
Tournament Director Retired General Nelson Eslao said that the tournament format will be Molave for players with handicaps and System 36 for players without handicaps.
Bishop Cenzon said, some 400 invited players will play in one of the venues for P1,200. Golf club sponsors waived the green fees. Trophies and other prizes await the winners. He said the golf tournament which is sponsored by the city government will help raise funds for the different activities in the 2009 centennial anniversary and would be able to support the sports activities slated by Dr. Charles Cheng. – marchfianza777@yahoo.com