THE RECENT ANNOUNCEMENT made by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regarding the Masungi stand-off is with all certainty a welcome development for local farmers and the indigenous people who have been shoved away from their ancestral domain.
According to the DENR, they’re giving Blue Star Construction and Development Corporation (BSCDC) 15 days to pack up and leave a 300-hectare area in Tanay, Rizal where they’re supposed to construct 5,000 townhouses and single-detached homes under an agreement which dates back in 1997.
But instead of building houses for government employees, BSCDC constructed and operated through a “foundation” what is now referred to as the Masungi Geo-Park, collecting hefty fees to local and foreign tourists wanting to take a glimpse at the magnificent rock formations.
More than entrance fees, the foundation has been collecting as much as P155,000 for an eight-hour use of the Masungi Geopark for events and pictorials and charging P1,800 per head — for a minimum of five persons — as entrance fee to the visitors.
Interestingly, the government doesn’t get a dime out of it.
PERPETUAL AGREEMENT
Worse, the foundation formed by the BSCDC, annexed its area to 2,700-hectares which is almost the size of Pasig City in Metro Manila.
The expanded “claim” made possible through a “perpetual agreement” entered into by the late Environment Secretary Gina Lopez, effectively shoved away local farmers from an area covered by Presidential Decree 324, and the Dumagat-Remontados tribe from their ancestral homes.
For one, the memorandum of agreement that was signed by Lopez is flawed from the very start.
Why would the government entrust a state property for an eternity?
For me, the agreement is grossly disadvantageous to the government, as it effectively ceded the property to the family claiming to be environmental advocates.
Speaking of advocacy, there is no person in a better position to protect the Masungi area but the farmers relying on the land they till for a living and the Dumagat-Remontados in a comfort zone called ancestral domain.
After all, they’ll be the first to suffer if they don’t protect the area where they live and make a living.