DUMAGAT leaders in Casiguran town in Aurora province have asked local officials to investigate quarrying activities that they said destroyed two rivers and a burial ground in Barangay Cozo two weeks ago.
Louigie Prado and Regina Ineria, chieftain and elder in the subvillage of Dipuntian, respectively, and Jemarie Banayad, representative of indigenous peoples in the town council, sought the investigation and corrective measures in a complaint to Mayor Ricardo Bitong and the local council.
The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples’ community service center in Casiguran endorsed the complaint dated Sept. 21.
The Dumagat leaders said SO Construction showed only a barangay resolution allowing the company to quarry materials for a supposed road concreting and widening project in Cozo.
They asked Bitong and the council to cancel the barangay resolution to protect the rivers and to file charges against the construction firm as well as the owner and operator of the backhoe used in the activity.
“[The construction firm] destroyed the Cozo and Pasaruboy rivers. We lost the big rocks that protect our village from floods,” they said.
“What is worst is that [a backhoe] extracted soil from the burial ground of our ancestors, exposing the remains of six people buried there,” they added.
The cemetery is on a hill beside the road, Ineria said by telephone on Monday. She said they failed to locate and retrieve the bones after earth-moving activities in the area.
“This is a desecration of our sacred land and a disrespect of our rights,” the Dumagat leaders said in the complaint.
Alfred Collado, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) officer in Casiguran, said the construction firm had not obtained clearances from the DENR and the Department of Public Works and Highways.
Collado said the firm has claimed to be “desilting” the rivers. The Inquirer, on Monday, tried but failed to reach any representative of the firm to clarify concerns about the project.
Gerardo Erquiza, president of the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport Authority in Casiguran, said the construction firm did not get a permit from his agency.
“Our mandate is to preserve nature,” he said. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon