Sunday, March 23, 2008 Shrine Hills, a tragedy waiting to happen: Idis
A NON-government organization (NGO) advocating for environmental protection expressed concern over the Shrine Hills development saying "it is a tragedy waiting to happen."
"Ang dami namang flatlands for housing, bakit yun pa pinupuntirya? (There are so many flatlands for housing, why that place?) It's a tragedy waiting to happen. Stop real estate development in the area," Interface Development Interventions (Idis) Executive Director Lia Jasmin Esquillo said.
The Ma-a homeowners are presently opposing the subdivision developments in the area fearing it might trigger landslides.
The homeowners association already sent a letter to City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) for a moratorium on the development "until safety can be assured."
"We, the homeowners below the DMC-Updi and Crown Communities Subdivision projects on Maa-Shrine Hills are still not assured of our safety after the February 29 presentations of the two subdivision developers."
"Our fear and anxieties have not been assured. We, and the Barangay Ma-a Federation of Homeowners Associations would like to see and have a copy of the engineering plans of DMC-Updi and Crown Communities. We also like to have a copy of their Environmental Impact Studies (EIS). We would study these documents to determine how our safety is assured," stated the letter signed by Norma Javellana, President of the Trinidad Greenhills Homeowners Association and from the Federation of Homeowners Association of Barangay Maa.
Javellana added they "question the clearance issued for the 1.7-kilometer cemented access road of DMC-Updi as the road is on a steep and unstable hill", thus asking the two developers to do an EIS for the access road "hovering over our subdivisions."
In a separate letter, the Ma-a homeowners environmental committee debunked the Engineering Geological and Geohazard Assessment Report for Palm Grove West Housing Subdivision in Barangay Ma-a and Matina, which claims that the land on which the subdivision stands is stable.
"Landscapes of old landslides are present in two sites. Many coconut trees are tilting down slope. Engineer Allan Botuyan's study found sections of land in the site as not stable," wrote Wilfredo Mosqueda, a member of the association's environment committee, in a letter to the City Planning and Development Office dated March 11.
Mosqueda introduced himself as a holder of a master's degree in Natural Resources from California's Humboldt State University.
Mosqueda also contradicted the report, which said: "sliding along the structures will never take place."
"Landslides will take place. The sheer strength, which is operating in the underlying bricks and ground materials, have been degraded as implied by the old landslides. Areas in the vicinities of similar geological history and development experienced landslides," Mosqueda said in his letter.
According to Mosqueda, the Ma-a Homeowners hope that the CPDO will consider their comments in the processing and approval of the subdivision project. (GLP)
