Tuba and barangay LGUs should own the Asin hydro facilities

HAPPY TRAILS

Roger Sinot 

ASIN HOT SPRINGS, Tuba – History records the truth, not misconceptions. In the same manner, it can correct past errors. Ninety years ago in 1924, the word “synchronize” was used for the first time to signal the switching-on of turbines in three hydro-electric plants remotely situated in Asin, Tuba, Benguet. For the first time too, Baguio felt the genius of its futurist American mayor and engineer Eusebius Julius Halsema. The city was wrapped by illuminations coming from electric lamps along the streets powered by mini hydro-plants that were considered the biggest thing that happened to the city ever since.

In book his book “E.J. Halsema: Colonial Engineer”; James Halsema said his father was then Baguio mayor,  city engineer and the district engineer of Benguet during his political stint from 1920 to 1937.   When he built the hydro-electric plants, they were supposed to energize the gold and copper mines in Benguet but somehow, these were eventually tapped to supply power to Baguio. The mind-boggling question is why should Baguio, a separate local government entity, build the mini hydro-electric plants for the mines in Benguet? It makes no sense.

The reasonable answer would be that it was true that EJ Halsema worked as district engineer of Benguet and was Baguio mayor at the time when the Asin hydro-electric facilities were built. Today, it is absurd that money from the city is allowed to finance anything related to the operation of the Asin power plants. There is no legal basis. Truth is, Baguio as the assumed “owner” of the Asin power facilities is not listed in the books of the assessors in Tuba or in the Benguet provincial capitol.

Proof of Halsema’s flexibility is that the construction of the rugged Mountain Trail in Benguet, now called Halsema Highway, started and was opened to the public in 1930 within his 17-year term as Baguio mayor. Although it was strange, Halsema certainly worked on the road while he was Baguio mayor, district engineer of Baguio and Benguet rolled into one. 

How Baguio came to claim ownership and operate the Asin hydro plants is mystifying and speculative. After the power plants were operated by locals under the command of Japanese military officers during the war, it erroneously got stuck in the minds of officials of Baguio that these were owned by Baguio just because it was mayor Halsema who constructed it. Also, the few people, to include my uncles from Asin, who knew the truth about the power plants did not make it through the war.    

After the war, the liberating American armed forces who stayed in Baguio repaired the facilities. It was during this period that the overseer management of the power plants was subtly assumed by Baguio. The vague ownership changed hands to the detriment of the shy BenguetIbaloys living in an unenthusiastic and still unsettled LGU in those days.

A few years ago, a compromise agreement was signed by the city and the Tadiangan-Nangalisan Hydro Ancestral Landowners Association, the only organization recognized by the city and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, and whose ancestral land papers are on process with the latter. However, the “light at the end of the tunnel” seemed to have dimmed for the TNHALA members who owned the lands where the facilities stood. This, after the signed MOA has not been complied with, making it very usable in the toilet.

Still, the TNHALA hopes the city makes it easy on the members and changes its attitude in dealing with them. After all, the main reason in organizing was for them to able to fight for their rights, and for the development of their community.

For our readers to understand, the TNAHALA aims to: 1) simply ease poverty and hunger among its members and the Asin community as well; 2) create global partnership in community development, at the same time encourage environmental sustainability; 3) achieve universal primary and secondary education for our children; 4) guard the basic human and natural rights of our members and the community; 5) avoid misrepresentation considering that they and entering into agreements or compromises with other entities to the detriment of the community; 6) promote customary practices and collective decision-making; and, 7) preserve and protect our ancestral lands.

Happy trails to all Asin Hydro stakeholders!