Road project damages forest, burial cave

A WOMAN carries an empty water container as she hikes through the foggy heights of Mount Santo Tomas in Baguio City to fetch fresh water from a store. Residents around Mount Santo Tomas and Mount Cabuyao in Tuba, Benguet province, have experienced water shortages because an illegal road project attributed to a Baguio official contaminated their spring sources. RICHARD BALONGLONG/INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet—Not only did the road project that cleared a portion of the Mount Santo Tomas watershed in Tuba town, Benguet province, displaced trees and dirtied water sources there, it also desecrated a burial cave, according to a provincial official.

Tuba residents have complained that the burial cave of their ancestors was swamped by loose soil and mud from diggings at Sitio Amliang in Barangay (village) Poblacion on Monday, said Blas Dalus, the indigenous peoples (IP) representative to the provincial board.

On June 6, foresters from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) filed a complaint against Baguio City Rep. Nicasio Aliping Jr. and three contractors for illegal tree cutting and for intruding into a protected forest after it found that the road construction was undertaken without an environmental compliance certificate (ECC).

Damage brought by the road project was estimated to reach P10.08 million, representing the market value of damaged trees and exemplary damages, said Octavio Cuanso, acting provincial environment and natural resources officer.

Cuanso said the proponents of the road project did not apply for a tree-cutting permit and did not secure an ECC.

Strong rain loosened soil from the road excavation, which was washed down to the Amliang Creek and three spring sources of the Baguio Water District (BWD), the DENR said.

Aliping welcomed the filing of the complaint and urged people to allow the process to take its course. “Everyone is presumed innocent and entitled to due process,” he said in a text message last week.

He said he was waiting to obtain clear details about the issue from a June 18 technical conference with the DENR.

Dalus, in his report to the provincial board, said ancestors of the Ibaloy, Kankanaey and Kalanguya residents were buried in the cave. He said Jose Bani, a resident of Sitio Pula in Poblacion village, informed him of the state of the burial cave last week.

Dalus, however, said he was not aware of the number of mummified remains buried in that cave.

“[Tuba residents] fear that [the spirits of] their ancestors would bring them illness because of the desecration of their burial cave,” he said.

Benguet’s traditions and beliefs honor and respect the dead, and residents believe that their ancestors’ spirits would bring illnesses to their living kin if their burial caves or graves are disturbed or desecrated.

“If this happens, the afflicted kin is required to perform the corresponding rituals to appease their ancestors and cure the sick,” Dalus said.

Residents were also worried about the expenses for the rituals, he said. “Aside from fear of getting sick, they are also [concerned about] the economic [cost] of performing rituals these days.”

Cuanso said the DENR was not aware that a burial cave was covered with mud in the area.

“When we conducted our investigations, there was no report about a burial cave affected there, but it is possible that a burial cave exists in the area because IP groups live there,” he said.

Cuanso said the proper agency that would address the matter was the National Commission of Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) but that the DENR was willing to include this issue in its investigation.

“We will definitely be part of the protection of the cultural heritage of Benguet,” he said.

DENR records showed that there are no recognized land titles within the Mt. Santo Tomas reservation, Cuanso said. He said he would check if the Department of Agrarian Reform and the Tuba municipal assessor’s office had issued land titles or declarations in the area.

“I believe the legal process is already taking its course. We are now waiting for the response of the respondents (Aliping and officials of the three construction companies) to the charges filed against them,” he said.

Cuanso said the Environmental Management Bureau would conduct its own evaluation of the project’s impact on water sources in the area in relation to the complaint of the BWD.