NATONIN,
Mountain Province – A former mayor of this town said the more than 100
landslides of different magnitudes that occurred at the high tog Typhoon Rosing
along the two national highways leading to Natonin were nature's act and not in any way related
to mining.
“We do not have mining
in Natonin," lawyer Marie Rafael, Assistant Secretary for Legislative
Affairs at the Presidential Communications Operations Office said.
"In the history of
Natonin, we never had this kind of devastation and deaths but there is nobody
to blame because it was nature's act," said Rafael, who did not seek
re-election after serving Natonin from 2007 to 2010.
“Kung makikita ninyo ang
mga roads namin prone sa landslide, makita ninyo naman ang mountains (our roads
are prone to landslide, look at the mountains)," she said, adding that
rain fell on Natonin during typhoon 'Ompong' (Mangkhut) in September which
already drenched the soil and was aggravated by the strong rain brought
by typhoon 'Rosita'," Rafael said.
The over-supply of rain
caused more than 60 landslides - almost every 50 meters away from each other,
along the 22-kilometer stretch of the Natonin-Paracelis road leading to Ifugao
and several other big landslides and a road cut along the Natonin-Bontoc road,
that links them to Bontoc, the capital town of Mountain Province.
Rafael said Natonin has
been experiencing landslides in the past after a typhoon, which sometimes makes
the town isolated for days or weeks.
“It’s not as damaging as
this one, not as painful as this one," she said, as she talked about the
casualties of the landslide that washed-away the Department of Public Works and
Highways (DPWH) building in barangay Banawel.
No
industries
Rafael
added that Natonin has no industries- no mining, no factories, no malls or even
commercial establishments and definitely not engaged in mining activities that
may damage nature.
The lack of industries
prompts the natives to leave the place.
"The population of
Natonin does not increase because people leave the town to study and work
elsewhere," Rafael said.
Since the 1960’s, she
said Natonin never grew more than 10,000 because people leave the place to get
a college degree and eventually work elsewhere.
She said their elders
have never allowed mining or any activities that may destroy nature either by
outsiders or local residents, which the town maintain up to the present. The
lack of income generating activities leads to outbound migration.
“Our forests are
virgin,” she said.
Industries
that damage the environment were never allowed in the town.
She also shared how
simple life is in Natonin with residents contended with the little money they
have from their salaries, using the same money to send their children to school
to finish a degree and make a name outside the town, Rafael said.
Natonin produces a
lawyer every year, who practices outside the town but continue to go home to
their birthplace.
Most of those who stay
in the town are the teachers in both the public and at the catholic school, children
from elementary and high school and residents who are employed by the local
government unit (LGU) and national line agencies, Rafael said.
These residents are the
same people who manage the rice farms, enabling them to produce the indigenous
rice variety "korel".
Natonin, she said, is a
simple town, where people live simply and contented with the little that they
have with pride, that they have a rich natural resource that they continue to
protect.
Geohazard
zone
While
there are no mining activities in the town, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau
(MGB) in the Cordillera, in its October 25, 2018 report, showed that Barangay
Banawel, where the landslide occurred and killed scores of people, is declared
as highly susceptible to landslide and flooding.
Aside from Banawel, the
10 other banangays — Alunogan, Balangao, Banao, Butac, Maducayan, Poblacion,
Pudo, Saliok, Santa Isabel and Tonglayan — are all highly susceptible to
landslide and flood. -- PNA
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