Petitioners want Globe out from Sagada sacred grounds

HAPPY WEEKEND

Gina Dizon

  

SAGADA, Mountain Province – Around 400 petitioners worldwide urged Globe Telecommunications to immediately remove their telecom tower built above the public cemetery located atop Calvary Hill; and restore the area by planting trees and dismantling all unwanted structures placed there.

The online petition posted on Avaaz site generated heated comments posted on the social networking site Facebook  against the telecommunication company’s  relay tower.

This, as the congregation of the Church of St Mary the Virgin  in their special assembly Oct. 7 called on the relocation of the tower and tasked the church Vestry to talk with Globe telecom for transfer of said tower.  It was not known when and where the tower shall be relocated.

The overriding sentiment of sanctity was affirmed by petitioners saying, “We do not separate our reverence and respect for our ‘babawiyan’ and ‘patpatayan’ (native sacred sites of Sagada indigenous folks)  from the Calvary Hill and the cemetery where the yearly ‘pinag-apoy’ (lighting of candles and peat wood near the graves) annually held eve of All Souls Day.” 

The petitioners added, “Our yearly pinag-aapoy and observance of Good Friday shows our sense of sanctity is inextricably linked to that space - that hill where the Stations of the Cross, the graves and tombs of our dead and calvary are built. This very violation of our rights to respect of our sacred spots- the Calvary Hill and the cemetery- has gone too much a desecration...”

Though the building of the tower did not just happen.

Church authorities allowed this with an agreement with the church vestry, the  Episcopal diocese of northern Philippines (EDNP), and Globe telecom  in 2010 and renewed in 2013. Petitioners called on the CSMV Parish and the authorities of EDNP to heed the call of the people of Sagada and concerned peoples to effect immediate removal of the structure at Calvary Hill.

Action from concerned national government agencies was a demand.  The building of the tower was done without a free prior and informed consent (FPIC)  certificate from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) though initial field based investigation was conducted by  NCIP and ended there. 

There were no further consultations conducted though recommendations of the people was the conduct of further consultations from affected stakeholders.

While Globe in their early negotiations with church authorities forwarded that the structure is ‘temporary’, this promise of assurance does not seem feasible with the tree cutting, rip rapping and reinforcement activities undertaken by the company at the site”, petitioners  forwarded.  It was learned that Globe shall remove its tower but to give it time. 

Opposition against the tower was registered in 2006 when the Sangguniang Bayan passed a resolution to stop 

Globe’s  illegal operations for not having secured legal requirements- an FPIC from NCIP, an environmental compliance certificate from DENR and a business permit.

This was preceded by a petition in 2010 from some  200 petitioners from the town asking Mayor Eduardo Latawan to ask Globe to secure the necessary legal requirements.