Revisiting Busol

BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon

BAGUIO CITY – Experiencing the cool mountain atmosphere of the Busol Watershed is always a welcome respite from hassles of urban life.

           

Last Friday, musicians who did the Baguio circuit since the 70s planted trees on the mountain here after holding a reunion concert earlier Monday at the Baguio General Hospital Medical Center for three seriously ill patients. (Please see pages 10 and 5 for Ramon Dacawi’s pieces and Roger Sinot’s column next page for more details.) 

Tito, who came all the way from his Visayan hometown was admiring the coolness of the place until somebody remarked this wouldn’t be the case if more houses would be built in the area.

Some years ago “settlers,” stopped a team from the city government which was there to demolish houses and buildings of land claimants in the area.

           

They said there was a temporary restraining order from the National Commission on Indigenous People’s, reason why the buildings could not be demolished. The incident happened in the morning but the TRO was released in the afternoon.     

           

The city government said the “settlers” were “squatting” on the area but the latter insisted, as ancestral land claimants, they had the right to stop demolition of their abodes and fencing of the lots.

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Early May, the Supreme Court ruled in its summer session here ancestral land claims over the Busol watershed were “without basis.”  

With this, officials said the stalled fencing of the watershed perimeter could now be done after the SC reversed earlier rulings by the Court of Appeals that sustained the NCIP’s orders stopping the fencing project in 2002.

In Feb. 27, a decision penned by Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, the Supreme Court granted the petition for review on certiorari by petitioners Baguio Regreening Movement, the city environment and parks management and the Busol Forest Reservation Task Force.

The Supreme Court overturned CA decisions dated April 30, 2007 and December 11, 2007. The SC, in effect dissolved the temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction issued by the NCIP against the project.

BRM chair Councillor Erdolfo Balajadia who broached the project in 2002 as a joint undertaking with the city government, city engineering district and Busol Task Force said with the SC decision, the fencing project to secure the watershed from squatters could now be done.  

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Busol supplies a third of the city’s water needs. Houses and buildings in the area now have around 1,000 septic tanks, according to lawyer Bubut Olarte who lives near the area in East Bayan. Balajadia earlier said he will write the Baguio Water District to release funds earlier allocated for the project so fencing could start immediately. 

The city government is also expected to work out funds for the project as earlier allocations reverted to coffers after the project’s cessation.

The project was stopped after NCIP hearing officer Brain Masweng issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) and later an injunction in the case filed by Elizabeth Mat-an, Judith Maranes, Helen Lubos, Magdalena Gumangan Que, spouses Alexander and Lucia Ampaguey and spouses Melanio and Carmen Panayo who claimed they inherited from their ancestors several parcels of land within the Busol watershed.

They said the fencing project, if pursued, would impede their access to and from their residences, farmlands and water sources within the reservation.

Masweng’s decisions were later affirmed by the CA which upheld the NCIP’s jurisdiction and authority to issue said orders.

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In reversing the CA decision, the SC cited the principle of “stare decisis” which states that “once a court has laid down a principle of law as applicable to a certain state of facts, it will adhere to that principle and apply it to all future cases where the facts are substantially the same.”

It in essence adapted an earlier ruling dated February 4, 2009 on a case docketed as G.R. No. 180206 which touched on similar arguments as the present case.

In said decision, the court also reversed an earlier decision of the CA which upheld the jurisdiction of the NCIP to issue temporary restraining orders and later a preliminary injunction to stop implementation of three demolition orders issued by then Mayor Braulio Yaranon for dismantling of illegal structures constructed by Lazaro Bawas, Alexander Ampaguey Sr. and a certain Basatan also in Busol.

In said decision, the higher court struck down the appellate court’s decision upholding the NCIP actions maintaining that the lot occupants’ ancestral land claim was not expressly recognized by Proclamation No. 15 which should have justified the issuances made by the NCIP.

The court said Proclamation No. 15 “does not appear to be a definitive recognition of private respondents’ ancestral land claim.”

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“The proclamation merely identifies the Molintas and Gumangan families, the predecessors-in-interest of private respondents, as claimants of a portion of the Busol Forest Reservation but does not acknowledge vested rights over the same.  In fact, Proclamation No. 15 explicitly withdraws the Busol Forest Reservation from sale or settlement,” the decision said.

“The fact remains, too, that the Busol Forest Reservation was declared by the Court as inalienable in Heirs of Gumanagan vs. Court of Appeals.  The declaration of the (reservation) as such precludes its conversion into private property.  Relatedly, the courts are not endowed with the jurisdictional competence to adjudicate forest lands,” the courts added.

“All told, although the NCIP has the authority to issue temporary restraining orders and writs of injunction, we are not convinced that private respondents are entitled to the relief granted by the Commission,” the court said.

It would be interesting to see how newly elected officials of the city would address Baguio’s water and sanitary needs related to Busol and the question of “informal settlers” in the watershed.

Would the city government now demolish buildings they constructed over the area?    

Indeed, as the musicians found out, beneath the tranquil and cool atmosphere of Busol is the burning issue of land ownership which would affect Baguio residents’ water supply and environment in the long run.