Monday, April 28, 2008 Development aggression in its naked reality By Annabelle L. Ricalde
VILLANUEVA, Misamis Oriental -- Two villages in this municipality will cease to exist this year and its 6,000 residents will join the throng of the homeless in the name of development and jobs.
They will join a similar fate with residents of a small village in Villanueva that was demolished by the Philippine Veterans Investments and Development Corporation (Phivedec) to make way for the Philippine Sinter Corporation constructed in the 70s.
That little was known of that small village is understandable. It all happened during the Martial Law period and the word of Phivedec, created by Presidential Decree 538 by the late President Ferdinand Marcos, is king on those days.
Barangays Tambobong and Balacanas will soon be demolished to make way for the construction of the $2 billion shipyard facility of Hanjin Heavy Industry and Construction Company.
Hanjin has promised 45,000 jobs to be generated by the shipyard facility, which they claimed would be the fourth largest in the world. It will be bigger than the facility Hanjin is building in Subic, officials said.
The 6,000 residents will have no chance with that.
29-year-old Jean Batahoy watched her husband, Raul, tore the nipa shingles of their home of more than 25 years.
Phividec has given the Batahoys until May 10 to demolish their own house or else the bulldozers would come and do the job.
Between the two, the Batahoys decided to tear down their house by themselves to save whatever is left of the materials and their dignity.
"Anugon gyud kaayo biyaan ang area kay pagpanguma ra baya ang among gisaligan sa panginabuhi (It is really a waste to leave this place. This is where we earn our living)," Batahoy told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro.
The Batahoys do not own the land they have been tilling. Phivedec owns most of the land -- around 3,000 hectares -- in the two municipalities.
Batahoy said they have tilled the small plot of land after she and her husband got married. There in the small parcel of land, the Batahoys raised their two children, now two and six years old.
"We planted kangkong, papaya and other vegetables. This land has been good to us," Batahoy said as she looked as her husband tore down the roof of their house.
She had despair in her face.
There is less traffic on the road to Barangay Tambobong these days. Gone are the habal-habals that used to take its residents and their agricultural products to town, some six kilometers away. Instead, a flurry of heavy dump trucks come and go from Barangay Tambobong, throwing up heavy clouds of dust as they bring loads of earth for the construction site.
Barangay Tambobong has 1,454 residents living in some 441.81 hectares. The residents' major source of livelihood is agriculture, earning the village some P5.5 million a year in Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA).
"We admit that the land where our houses are standing are not ours. We are just occupants here. But what we only ask is the assurance that we will be justly compensated with the cost of building our houses, including the crops that we've planted," Barangay Tambobong chair Delilah Abellanosa said.
Abellanosa said the relocation site promised by Phivedec is far from what they have promised.
"Wala gani tubig ug kuryenti, mag-unsa man ang mga tawo didto (There is no water and electricity in the relocation site. What will we do there)?" Abellanosa said.
Libertino Equasion, 57, said Phivedec did not yet pay him P4,000 for the 300 banana plants he planted. He said the bulldozers have already torn down the bananas.
"Ang estimate nako nga kantidad sa punoan sa saging moabot og P42,000 (I estimated that my bananas cost around P42,000)," Equasion said.
He said he was sad that Phivedec and Hanjin representatives came to consult them only last April 23.
Equasion said if the Phivedec is sincere in assisting the affected residents, they should have conducted the public consultation much earlier.
The demolition of houses in Barangay Tambobong has already cost a life. Dolor Juntilla, mother of three, committed suicide when the bulldozers came to demolish her house late March.
Face with the harsh reality that their village will be lost forever, Abellanosa and members of the barangay council passed a resolution asking Phivedec and Hanjin to spare the small land where the Tambobong barangay hall stands.
Abellanosa said this is the only way for the memory of what was once a happy village will live on.
