Clark stops quarrying to end row among Aetas

CLARK FREEPORT — Operating as a task force, the state-owned Clark Development Corp. (CDC) and the Pampanga provincial government have ordered the suspension of quarrying of sand from Mt. Pinatubo on the banks of Sacobia River here, amid squabbles among Aeta groups in Pampanga and Tarlac provinces.

The suspension would take effect from July 31 to Aug. 6, Gov. Lilia Pineda said in a media briefing on Friday following a meeting with officials of the provincial legislative board, CDC and Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA).

The task force also suspended the collection of quarry fees amounting to P550 by the Sangguniang Tribung Aeta ng CADT 025 (STA), P200 by the Bamban Aeta Tribal Association, loading fees of between P90 and P210 by the CDC, and P650 by the provincial capitol.

The fees amount to more than P4 million a week from 450 trucks that haul sand each day.

STA had rescinded a joint management agreement (JMA) with CDC over 10,684 hectares of their ancestral domain due to alleged corruption and the lack of transparency of the bases conversion agency.

STA served notice of its withdrawal through a June 19 letter to CDC which its leaders, Oscar Dizon and Robert Serrano, distributed to the media on Wednesday.

CADT 025 refers to the certificate of ancestral domain title issued in 2006 by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), which covers portions of Mabalacat City in Pampanga and Bamban town in Tarlac.

The domain is close to the 9,500-hectare metropolis project Clark City in Capas town, also in Tarlac.

Lack of unified leadership

The NCIP will be asked to certify the Aeta representatives who have a JMA with CDC in the Sacobia area, CDC chair Jose de Jesus said.

“The conflict is happening because of the lack of unified leadership that [would be] respected by Aeta communities,” he said.

Pineda said: “It is not the revenue that is important here. What is more important is that we will able to settle the leadership problem.”

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources will assess the condition of the river as well as the safety of structures like dikes, spillways and the 700-meter long Sacobia Bridge for the duration of the suspension order, she said.

Following the approval of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), the CDC allowed desilting in 2000 to control erosion and protect the banks.

The Mt. Pinatubo eruptions in 1991 expelled 1.1 billion cubic meters of volcanic debris and sand that settled on Sacobia River, MGB said.

Vivencio Dizon, BCDA president and chief executive officer, said the task force intervened so that Aetas in Mabalacat City and Bamban could get more benefits from sand and from the long-term development in Sacobia area.

“The sustainability of the area is important,” he said, considering that the Sacobia area is near Clark City, a metropolis-in-the-making.

Noel Manankil, CDC president, said that P14.3 million, representing the 20-percent share of Aeta communities from leases paid by investors, would be turned over to them once the NCIP settled the leadership issue.

He said the share, as well as P83 million collected from quarry fees, had been audited by the Commission on Audit.

STA said Aeta communities did not get a share from P1.2-billion revenue from quarry operations at the Sacobia and Marimla rivers from April 2000 to June 2017.

Documents obtained by the Inquirer from CDC showed the agency had collected P14 million as share of the Aetas from eight investors operating in the Sacobia area from December 2007 to December 2016. The tribe’s share was deposited in a separate account.

In its book of accounts, CDC said it earned P83.454 million in revenues from desilting operations from 2001 to May 2017. The Aeta share would be computed from 2007, it said.

According to CDC, the amounts have not been distributed because the NCIP has not yet officially certified which group or leaders represent the Aetas in Sacobia.