Bong Pineda tagged obstacle to water project

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Philippines—A P20-million water project of the Orani government in Bataan has been delayed anew after the purported owner of a property inside the Bataan Natural Park, suspected gambling lord Rodolfo “Bong” Pineda, barred entry to springs and right-of-way for pipes, village officials told the Orani council on Friday.

The Inquirer tried but failed to reach Bong Pineda for comment. His wife, Lilia, who is governor of nearby Pampanga, disputed the report to the Orani council.

“That’s impossible,” she said on Monday. “We don’t meddle in how things are being done around there.”

Bong Pineda has been raising game fowls in portions of more than 50 hectares within the park for more than a decade, Inquirer sources said.

He has applied for a Sapa (special use agreement in protected area) at the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB), a source in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said, citing a document.

The PAMB gave “favorable endorsement,” said the source who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

Lawyer Ricardo Lazaro, DENR chief in Bataan, said the “whole of Barangay Tala opposed the project,” which was why the Orani Water District (OWD), the project proponent, failed to get a social acceptability certificate.

The three springs are not within land covered by Bong Pineda’s Sapa application, said Marites Salenga, a representative of people’s organizations in the PAMB.

“The springs are within the village but not in Pineda’s areas,” she said by phone on Tuesday.

But she said OWD pipes will have to pass through Pineda’s property.

Benni Andres, OWD general manager, said the rights over the use of springs cannot be given to private individuals.

Governor Pineda said she, or her husband, cannot be accused of opposing the project because they supported a similar project in the area two years ago.

The project suffered its first delay when farmers from Orani and nearby Samal town opposed a plan to tap water from a river in the park, Andres said.

He said village officials began citing Bong Pineda and another person when the OWD scrapped the first plan and eyed the park’s springs in three different sites as alternative sources.

Because these are uplands, pipes would have to pass through Pineda’s property to make the water flow to 1,500 households in Tala and Barangay Pag-asa and 5,000 more households in the lowlands.

“The first ones who opposed the projects were [Pineda and another person]. They did not tell us the reason. It’s just that they don’t want it,” said Tala Barangay Captain Ernesto Lojo, quoting residents.

Andres said he went to the Pampanga capitol to confirm it and was told by a staffer of the governor to expect a call, which he has yet to receive.