June | 2009 | Northern Dispatch (nordis) Weekly

Army hit for HRVs in Abra

June 28, 2009 in Cordillera, human rights

By ALDWIN QUITASOL
www.nordis.net

BAGUIO CITY — The New People’s Army (NPA) in the province of Abra hit the 50th Infantry Battalion of the 503rd Brigade of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for preventing the people and family of slain NPA guerrilla fighter Michael “Ka Tarius” Reyes from searching and retrieving his body.

In an e-mailed statement, Spokesperson Diego Wadagan of the Agustin Begnalen Command of the NPA-Abra narrated that on June 6, troops of the 50th IB, 503rd Brigade engaged NPA fighters in two incidents of gun battle in Tubo, Abra. According to Wadagan, the second firefight happened in the afternoon at Layaban, Barangay Beew, also in Tubo. Read the rest of this entry →

Sagada tour guides used in military operations

June 28, 2009 in Cordillera, human rights

By ARTHUR ALLAD-IW
www.nordis.net

SAGADA, Mountain Province — Army troopers based here took two Sagada tourist guides by force and used them as human shields and guides in their military operations in the forested areas at the boundary with Abra.

Nordis sources identified the tourist guides as Christopher Angway and Alen Dugao, both members of the Sagada Environment Guides Association (SEGA). Read the rest of this entry →

City mayor, councilors deny getting Forbes Park lots

June 28, 2009 in Baguio City

By AILEEN REFUERZO
www. nordis.net

BAGUIO CITY — City officials last week denied applying for lots or receiving lot donations within the Forbes Park forest reservation where alleged large tracts of land were recently issued Certificates of Ancestral Land Title (CALTs).

Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr. Thursday brushed off said allegation broached by the Linis Gobyerno anti-graft entity as plain rumor, as he maintained that city officials are acting for the protection of the forest reservation, and questioning the validity of said CALTs in a forest reservation, which is not classified as “alienable and disposable.” Read the rest of this entry →

Lepanto told to stop its mining expansion

June 28, 2009 in Cordillera

By ALDWIN QUITASOL
www.nordis.net

BAGUIO CITY ¯ Local residents of Mankayan, Benguet want mining operations there to stop amid continuing threat of subsidence in many parts of the said mineral-rich town.
“Pirmi a nadadadael ti Mankayan gapu iti operasyon ti minas iti las-ud ti mano a tawen, adu ti linumned ken nargaa-ay a dagdaga ken taltalon ken nadadael a balbalay kasta met a sanikua’” (Mankayan is very much destroyed because of the many years of mining operations, many lands and farms sunk and subsided and houses as well as properties were destroyed.) Colalo Barangay Captain Ambino Padawi said.
Padawi was among Mankayan residents who had an audience with Baguio-based media Tuesday to air their grievances over the recent sinking incident in Aurora Street in Barangay Poblacion.
“Tapno adda pay laeng dagiti paspaset ti Mankayan a mabati, maymayat nga isardeng ti Lepanto ti expansion na nu saan man nga ti operasyon na,” (It is better that Lepanto stopped its expansion, if not its operations, so that parts of Mankayan will still remain with us) Padawi added.
Vicente Dilem, a former miner of Lepanto said mined-out tunnels of Lepanto were only back-filled loosely. These make the surface ground vulnerable to sinking.
“Nagadu ti abut iti underground iti Mankayan,” (There are many tunnels in the undergrounds of Mankayan) Dilem said.

Colalo incident recalled

A woman community leader in Mankayan still remembers the collapse of her community’s school house ten years after the historic sinking that claimed a sizable portion of Barangay Colalo.

The continuous massive land subsidence that destroyed at least eight houses and the grounds and buildings of Mankayan Central School and Mankayan National High School (MNHS) which started in the first week of June reminded Mrs. Janet Mayanggao of what happened almost ten years ago in her Barangay of Colalo. Read the rest of this entry →

Busol residents against selective demolition

June 28, 2009 in Baguio City

By WENDY ATUBAN
www.nordis.net

BAGUIO CITY — Residents of the Busol Watershed Reservation here whose houses will be demolished by the city staring July 1 cried injustice over what they claim as selective demolition.

Appearing in the citizen’s forum during the city council session on Monday, affected residents pleaded for the suspension of the demolition order – not to save their houses – but to lobby for equal demolition of all structures in the watershed reservation without regard to position or profession, political relations, and house construction. Read the rest of this entry →

The dung war heightens in Benguet

June 28, 2009 in Cordillera

By LYN V. RAMO
www.nordis.net

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – While local government officials here and their counterparts in the provincial board are churning up ordinances on the transport, sale and storage of chicken dung, business persons engaged in the trade turned to legal remedies.

The stinking, but beneficial, stuff transported from lowland poultry farms, is the subject of discussions not only in legislative and judiciary arena, but in jeepney stops and barber shops as well. Read the rest of this entry →

Ifugao state college vies for university status

June 28, 2009 in Cordillera

By JEREMY GAWONGNA
www.nordis.net

LAMUT, Ifugao – Ifugao State College of Agriculture and Forestry (ISCAF) President Dr. Serafin L. Ngohayon initiated a lobby to raise the status of the college into a state university, through law.

Senator Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr., authored the proposed law, Senate Bill No. 1224, or an “Act to Accelerate the Socio-cultural and Economic Development of the Cordillera Region by Establishing a State University in the Province of Ifugao to be Known as Ifugao State University (IFSU), Converting for the Purpose the Ifugao State College of Agriculture and Forestry into a University”. Read the rest of this entry →

Casiño welcomes graft cases vs. DepEd on noodles scam

June 28, 2009 in national

By ARTHUR ALLAD-IW
www.nordis.net

QUEZON CITY – Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño welcomed the filing of formal charges against the Department of Education (DepEd) officials and others involved in the controversial P427 million noodle feeding program.

Casiño, however, expressed fears that efforts are underway to revive the anomalous contract. Read the rest of this entry →

Surround the House on PGMA’s SONA to stop Con-Ass — Casiño

June 28, 2009 in national

By FRED DABU
www.nordis.net

QUEZON CITY – A partylist representative finds a way that will prevent the constituent assembly (con-ass) from convening: human barricade at the House of Representatives.

To avert any move that will convene Congress into a Con-Ass beginning July 27 when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (PGMA) delivers her State of the Nation Address (SONA) in the House of Representatives, Bayan Muna Partylist Representative Teodoro Casiño is calling on the public to surround the House and guard vigilantly against con-ass. Read the rest of this entry →

Benguet rural hospital gets X-ray unit

June 28, 2009 in Cordillera

By LYN V. RAMO
www.nordis.net

BUGUIAS, Benguet – Despite the absence of a surgery unit, the Mountain Trail Inter-local Health Zone’s Abatan Emergency Hospital here received a P3.7 million worth X-ray facility, which the provincial government and a foreign donor turned over on June 17.

Residents of Benguet towns Atok, Bakun, Buguias and Mankayan are among immediate beneficiaries of the X-ray facility but all commuters along the Halsema highway will also benefit from it, according to Gov. Nestor Fongwan, who graced the turn-over ceremonies. Read the rest of this entry →

Ombudsman junks Jadewell complaint vs. Bautista

June 28, 2009 in Baguio City

By AILEEN REFUERZO
www.nordis.net

BAGUIO CITY – The Office of the Ombudsman set aside the complaint of Jadewell Parking Systems Corporation against Mayor Reinaldo A. Bautista for alleged inaction on its request to restore the demolished wooden structure at the Ganza parking lot in Burnham Park in deference to the court case Jadewell filed.

Lawyer Julita Manalac-Calderon, graft investigation and prosecution officer of the Public Assistance Bureau said the Office of the Ombudsman would consider Jadewell’s request “closed and terminated” because there are pending cases before the Supreme Court. Read the rest of this entry →

EDITORIAL: Legal, but unjust

June 28, 2009 in editorials

www.nordis.net

The order from the Mayor’s office to demolish houses that have encroached into the Busol watershed here in Baguio City should be welcome by all. This move to protect the largest watershed in the city is long overdue. Those who have put up their houses in that area fully well know that they have violated the law by doing so.

To give credit where credit is due, the Baguio Regreening Movement has been on the forefront of the campaign to save the Busol watershed from squatters’ encroachment and environmental degradation.

Yet, while the demolition order is lawful, it is unjust. It is so because those who have received demolition notices are only the owners of shanties and one-storey houses in the watershed area, while those with higher and more durable structures are being spared from demolition.

In effect, the order from City Hall discriminates against the poorer violators of the law. The relatively well-off residents of Busol – professionals, military officials, and otherwise well-connected individuals – who were able to put up two-storey and more concrete houses will not be touched.

To accommodate these “untouchable” squatters in Busol, what we will see later on is the re-drawing of the boundaries of the watershed area, so that these violators of the law will eventually go scot-free. This has been the practice in the past with regards to various reservation areas in the City; this is being done today in secrecy, so we see no reason why it will not be done in the future.
And the rich squatters of Busol will then say: “All is well, that ends well.”
So, where is justice here? Or is this another case of one law for the rich and powerful, and another for the poor and powerless? No wonder that the owners of the soon-to-be demolished houses are raising howls of protest against the unjust order. “Either we demolish all, or we do not demolish at all” is their battle cry.

Councilor Erdolfo Balajadia, one of stalwarts of the Baguio Re-greening Movement, has been quoted as standing pat on the demolition orders while expressing concern for the Busol residents whose houses will soon be demolished.

His concern is well-taken. We believe however that a greater concern should be placed on the unintended effect of this discriminatory order. For how will the citizens regard the operation of laws and the legal system when an order can be twisted to favor Jose and discriminate against Pedro? Or, is this really how the system works, unspoken though it might be?

But then, are we not, in effect, subverting law and order in the city by letting this happen? To quote Mayor Alfredo Lim of Manila, “The law applies to all, or it does not apply at all.”
So, which way do we go, Mayor Bautista? # nordis.net

STATEMENT: CPDF demands immediater release of Balweg couple and son

June 28, 2009 in Cordillera

By SIMON “KA FILIW” NAOGSAN, CORDILLERA PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC FRONT
www.nordis.net

The Cordillera Peoples Democratic Front (CPDF) calls for the immediate release of the ailing Jovencio Balweg and his wife, Carmen. According to reports, Jovencio is undergoing medication and, in fact, just came from a medical checkup when he was accosted and arrested by elements of the PNP Regional Intelligence (R2).

Likewise, Carmen should be released to care for Jovencio and because she is also undergoing medical treatment for various illnesses. Read the rest of this entry →

WEEKLY REFLECTIONS: Sex video scandal

June 28, 2009 in columns

By REV. LUNA DINGAYAN
www.nordis.net

Where could I go to escape from you? Where could I go to get away from your presence? — Psalm 139:7

One of the issues picked up by the media in the past weeks was about a sex video scandal involving some celebrities in the movie industry, particularly Hayden Kho and Katrina Halili. It was exposed for the first time by no less than Bong Revilla, a movie actor-turned-senator. Read the rest of this entry →

LABOR WATCH: Man as the master who dominates the world

June 28, 2009 in columns

By ALDWIN QUITASOL
www.nordis.net

The Juche Idea means, in a few words, that the owner of the revolution
and construction are the masses. — Kim Il Sung

(North Korea these days is again under the threat of economic sanctions and probably aggressions by the US because of its development in economy, technology and military. In this issue, let us take a look on the guiding principle which makes the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea continuously struggle to be a prosperous and powerful nation.)

The Juche Idea

The idea that man is the master of everything and decides everything, in other words, the idea that man is the master of the world and his own destiny and is the transformer of the world and the shaper of his destiny, is fundamentally opposed to idealism and metaphysics. Read the rest of this entry →

Asia rep to UN body search up

June 28, 2009 in Baguio City, international

By LYN V. RAMO
www.nordis.net

BAGUIO CITY — The selection process for the nomination of the IP expert representative for Asia to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) has started, the Baguio-based Tebtebba Foundation said.

“The selection process for the Asia expert representative to the UNPFII is an important mechanism to ensure the open and democratic participation of as many organizations of indigenous peoples as possible,” said Tebtebba’s Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, also the current chair of UNPFII. Read the rest of this entry →

The Aurora sinking retold: Women, youth wary of the future

June 28, 2009 in Baguio City

By LYN V. RAMO
www.nordis.net

BAGUIO CITY — A woman in her 50’s could not help but shed a tear at the thought that at least six of her nephews and nieces are presently facing an imminent danger in Mankayan.

Janet Mayanggao, a resident of Colalo, Mankayan, Benguet, was among locals who retold stories about sinking incidents in the mining town Tuesday. Herself a witness on how people scampered to safety in the 1999 collapse of the Colalo Elementary School, Mayanggao vividly told the press how a mother feels about the sinking. Read the rest of this entry →

Ifugao hosts National Wrestling Open championship

June 28, 2009 in Cordillera

By JEREMY GAWONGNA
www.nordis.net

Recognizing potential athletes at the grassroots level to join the official Philippine Wrestling Team (PWT) line-up for the 25th Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) in Laos this December, the Wrestling Association of the Philippines (WAP) held the 2009 2nd Quarter National Open Championship at the Ifugao State College of Agriculture and Forestry (ISCAF), Lamut, Ifugao on June 16 to 17.

At least two Ifugao teams tried out for the said national event with impressive results: the ISCAF Wrestling Club and the Ifugao Team. Awarded by WAP as the team champion, the former ruled the Free-style and Greco-Roman style – juniors’ division. Special award as the Most Promising Wrestler went to Razel Gutierrez of the said club who put up a good fight against one of PWT’s well-trained athletes. Read the rest of this entry →

3rd Baguio Pride Week celebration kicks off

June 28, 2009 in Baguio City

By Wendy Atuban
www.nordis.net

BAGUIO CITY — In the call for acceptance and equality of all genders, different organizations under the Baguio Pride Network joined the rest of the world commemorate the “Stonewall Inn event” with a kick-off program Monday morning here.

The infamous and violent raid of a gay bar in New York in 1969 sparked off the worldwide protest movement of gays that is now commemmorated as the Stonewal event. This is the third year of an organized celebration of Pride Week in the city. Read the rest of this entry →

Fongwan orders evacuation

June 21, 2009 in Cordillera

By LYN V. RAMO
www.nordis.net

MANKAYAN, Benguet – “People’s lives are in danger. They should vacate the place immediately,” Gov. Nestor B. Fongwan told the officials here, referring to the remaining houses near the Aurora sinkhole in Barangay Poblacion here.

Fongwan, in a meeting with teachers, community leaders and town officials here Wednesday, advised Mankayan people to be on alert amid the continuing ground movement that can be aggravated by continuous downpour. Read the rest of this entry →