INDIGENOUS
PEOPLE'S WATCH
Ibalois Face
Eviction from Ancestral Lands in Camp John Hay
“I
pleaded before her, saying ‘God gave this land for people to stay’ but she
answered in English which I didn’t understand,” related Martha Dayog.
Dayog is an Ibaloi, one of the residents of Happy Hollow and Liwanag,
villages in Camp John Hay whose residents are being evicted. “Her” was
Lyssa GS Pagano-Calde, legal counsel of JHMC. Dayog showed her documents,
including a receipt dated October 15, 1949 issued by the Commonwealth of
the Philippines to her father for real property taxes payment.
BY LYN V. RAMO
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat
BAGUIO CITY — Using
Presidential Decree 705 of The Philippine Forestry Code as basis, the John
Hay Management Corporation (JHMC) issued a directive authorizing Scout
Rangers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to demolish three
houses in Barangay Happy Hollow and a shanty inside the Baguio Country
Club last December, and a storehouse also in Happy Hollow last Jan. 10.
The demolition order
covers 13 barangays affecting Ibalois and Kankanaeys, the tribal groups
native to the area.
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Ibaloi women |
A Marcos decree, PD
705 prohibits habitation in areas 18 per cent in slope, making the entire
Cordillera and other mountainous regions a public domain.
Camp John Hay
residents petitioned the city council, which in turn called for a dialogue
last Jan. 10. As a result, the city council held the demolitions in
abeyance and called for the segregation of the 13 barangays.
“The segregation
process for the delineation of built-up areas in the Camp John Hay Forest
Reservation (CJH reservation) must be rushed so that actual occupants
could do what they wished on their land,” said Baguio Councilor Jose
Mencio Molintas who heads the city’s Committee on Human Rights, Justice,
Public Protection and Safety, Peace and Order. He urged the people in the
13 barangays inside the reservation to organize as he asked that
demolitions be held in abeyance in order not to pre-empt the city
council’s efforts to delineate areas for release from the CJH reservation.
The reservation is a
273-hectare special economic zone estate awarded by virtue of Republic Act
7227 or the Bases Conversion Development Authority Act. The segregation
of 13 barangays is one condition imposed by former
Baguio
officials when they endorsed the master development plan for CJH in 1996.
Camp John Hay was a former rest and recreation area for US troops before
being turned over to the Philippine government.
Molintas said in a
committee consultation on Jan. 12 that while people living inside the Camp
John Hay reservation maintain that the area is part of their ancestral
domain, the John Hay Management Corporation (JHMC) thinks otherwise and is
in fact asserting its control over the area.
Prior right
"Nagpakpaka-asi ak
kadakuada, 'Inted ti Diyos a pagyanan ti tao ti daga,' ngem sinungbatandak
ti English a saan ko pulos a naawatan" (I pleaded before her saying
“God gave this land for people to stay” but she answered in English which
I didn’t understand), Martha Dayog told the city council during the
citizens’ forum during the council’s session Jan. 10.
Dayog said that her
ancestors have lived in the area for more than 100 years, even showing as
proof to the JHMC authorities some documents that the Americans issued her
father after the second world war. The documents included an original
official receipt of the Commonwealth of the Philippines dated Oct. 15,
1949 when Bernal Tindaan, her deceased father, paid the commonwealth
government treasury P518 apparently in fines and real property taxes.
"Saanda a binigbig
dagiti dokumento" (She did not
honor the documents) Dalog narrated. She said she could not read, write
nor speak any language but Iloko and her native tongue Inibaloi. "Uray
diak mabasa ti nakasurat iti dokumento, ammok a nagbaybayad kami ti buwis
ti dagami" (Even if I could not read what was written in the
documents, I know that we have been paying our taxes for our land), she
opined.
Moratoriums on
demolitions and constructions
In a dialogue with
the concerned residents on Jan. 12, Molintas initiated a moratorium.
Pagano-Calde and former Army Maj. George Demot , the Security Manager of
the JHMC, attended the dialogue.
Residents, however,
seemed unhappy over the new moratorium because, they said, the JHMC still
controls their movements.
“Uray plywood ket
alaenda” (They confiscate even
a piece of plywood), a woman told the committee hearing.
Demot, however said
that if the barangay captain issues a certification, the JHMC will issue a
gate pass to allow the entry and exit of materials from the area.
In 2002, there was a
moratorium to demolitions but repairs were allowed. In 2003, however, the
moratorium was amended and disallowed the renovation, expansion and
construction of additional structures in the CJH reservation.
Residents say that
they were not informed of the conditions of the moratorium. They said
that families grow and children have grown into adults who eventually
formed new families. Thus, necessitating the building of new houses on
lands their parents gave them, the residents reasoned out.
Segregation
efforts in Camp John
Hay
Happy Hollow is one of 13 barangays
to be segregated from CJH reservation. It is included in the 19-point
conditionality as contained in City Resolution # 362 that the city council
passed for compliance by the CJH. The other barangays are Loakan, Apugan,
Liwanag, Lucnab, Scout Barrio, Green Water, Hillside, Dagsian, Lualhati,
Baguio Country Club Village, Gabriela Silang and Sta. Scholastica.
In 2001, JHMC started
a mapping of structures and census of actual occupants in the reservation
to justify a congressional declaration that the area is alienable and
disposable in favor of the occupants. A presidential action is necessary
for the approval of the segregation.
Only Scout Barrio has
been delineated when residents here agreed to pay P300 per square meter to
the BCDA in 1999.
A Barangay
Segregation Committee was earlier formed with then Mayor Bernardo Vergara
as head and the city council and officials of the 13 affected barangays as
members. After the titling of Scout Barrio, however, the segregation
efforts stopped, according to Happy Hollow Brgy. Capt. Joseph Sacley, who
was also present at the dialogue.
The operation of the
segregation committee was suspended during the May 2004 elections, the
barangay captain told the city council. Northern Dispatch/ Posted by
Bulatlat
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