Pangasinan execs urge students: Be objective

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—A ranking provincial official has urged detractors of Gov. Amado Espino Jr. to look at projects of the provincial government objectively to fully appreciate their socioeconomic impact.

Addressing campus writers in Luzon attending a journalism workshop here, Provincial Administrator Rafael Baraan said government projects should be “viewed on a bigger picture.”

“Be always open-minded, not one-sided,” he told the student writers, but obviously referring to detractors of Espino.

A group, which was supposed to have started the development of a 300-hectare ecotourism site here during the previous provincial administration, is now championing the opposition, “by falsely claiming that the provincial government project was a black-sand mining operation,” Baraan said.

“Sadly, this same group of political detractors that snubbed the economic zone proposal is moving mountains to derail ongoing development (in Pangasinan),” he said.

He said the development of the ecotourism project necessitated the removal of unwanted minerals to be replaced with garden soil needed for the planting of carpet grass for an 18-hole golf course.

“Unfortunately, critics mistakenly viewed the extraction of harmful mineral elements as black-sand mining,” he said. “We are not destroying the area. We are enhancing it,” he added.

The project site, which spans the coastal villages of Sabangan, Estanza, Malimpuec and Capandanan here, was awarded to the provincial government by then President Fidel Ramos, who envisioned its transformation into an economic zone.

Residents of these villages voted in favor of proceeding with the golf course during a public consultation in Guesang Elementary School here in July.

That consultation was the last of a series of meetings held since March to fulfill the prerequisites for obtaining an environmental compliance certificate for the project.

Opponents of the project rallied recently at the Ombudsman in Manila demanding accountability from provincial officials for the project. Report from Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon