Benchwarmer

Ramon Dacawi
Panagbenga postscript: perennials
keeping Baguios status as flower city
(First of two parts)
Perennials the likes of bougainvillea, hibiscus and African tulip are keeping afloat Baguios endangered - if not
former - status as the countrys flower city. The annuals, they that go from seed to bloom and back to seed in one
growing season or cycle in Baguios temperate climate, - snapdragon, zinnia, peas, marigold and others - are
vanishing with the gardens they used to grow in.
This is the reality on the ground, notwithstanding the call for year-round blossoming that the annual Baguio
Flower Festival has accented on for 20 years now.
Its all for convenience. Coaxing an annual, say petunia, to sprout and bloom, requires tender human loving
care for months, as my unlettered old man repeatedly did, year in and year out for years until his retirement from the
city old city nursery that is no longer. The dwindling water supply, the rising cost of labor and of Baguio lots and open
spaces now too precious to waste on annuals, further diminish our status as the countrys flower garden city.
Theres also that growing lament that flowers have given way to plasticity, to the commercialization of this
blossoming that Panagbenga, is supposed to celebrate.
Even the Pacdal Forest Nursery that , over the years, shifted to tree seedling production perhaps also for
labor convenience - , is no more. Its giving way to a centralized infrastructure to house all the various regional
offices of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
We find solace from the roadside view of perennials which began exploding with blooms before or with the
onset of summer. Suddenly prominent in February is the jacaranda, the sight of which you can still catch, as it
sheds its blue, bell-like flowers along Kisad Road and in front of the community environment and natural resources
office at Pacdal.
Native to Central and South America, jacaranda lines up the streets of Pretoria in South Africa where legend
has it that if a flower drops on a students head, he or she will pass the final exams at the University of Pretoria.
All the while Id presumed jacaranda came from where the African tulip did. Also known as fountain tree,
the tulip is so named for its orange-red tulip-shaped blooms that spread out to its branches in older trees and jut out
first on its upper crown in younger ones. Represented by a single species, its scientifically called Spathodea
campanulata for its spathe-like calyx and campanulate or bell-shaped flowers, mostly red-orange.
As annually experienced by the Baguio media who set up their summer program parachute at the picnic
grove of the Burnham Park, African tulip is fast growing, its wood soft and brittle.
Topping the riot of colors from perennials this summer about to begin is the bougainvillea. It blooms in red,
pink, orange, yellow, although there may be other shades to be found exposing themselves out of residential gates,
fences and hedges in ones jeepney, taxi or private car ride around.
Erroneously presuming it came from Spain, I misspelled it as bougainvilla. Like Jacaranda, it originated in
South America where its known as Napoleon in Honduras, trinitaria in Colombia, Cuba and Puerto Rico, Santa Rita
in Argentina, Bolivia and Uruguay. Its called papelillo in northern Peru because of its paper-like bracts, its special,
brightly colored leaves which we mistake for the flower because they grow from the stem from which the actual
flower develops.
As observed by Wikipedia, the probability of hybrids can be almost endless: Currently, there are over 300
varieties of bougainvillea around the world. Because many of the hybrids have been crossed over several
generations, it is difficult to identify their respective origins. Natural mutations seem to occur spontaneously
throughout the world.
The vines English and scientific name was in honor of French Navy admiral and explorer Louis Antoine de
Bougainville, the first Frenchman to circumnavigate the globe, courtesy of Philipbert Commercon, his botanist on his
voyage to South America.
The explosion of bracts, in clusters of three in some species and six in others, were what inspired then city
mayor Braulio Yaranon to urge residents to plant the vine as a move towards restoring Baguios historical link to
flowers, perhaps even without any aim whatsoever of restoring the title Flower Garden City. (to be continued. emailmondaxbench@yahoo.com for comments.)
Letters from the Agno
March L. Fianza
Mob proposal?
BAGUIO CITY -- In one local newspaper, its headline screams, Bill to lop 3 hectares from Forbes opposed. The
Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources opposition is worth supporting considering that the bill filed by Rep.
Nicasio Aliping which he based on a supposed position paper by landless families as claimed, will chop off three
hectares from the Forbes Park Forest Reservation.
Anyone in his right mind will say that lopping portions of a forest reservation in favor of illegal squatters is a
lopsided proposition. It can encourage Mobocracy and Anarchy. It is insane. I am not saying the congressman is

insane but the proposal by the so-called landless families who call themselves the Baguio-Benguet Mountain
Province-Maydatan Group is.
The name sounds fictitious. It is my first time to come across such a group. If this means the group includes
landless families from Benguet, something is not right. But if the group is composed of brothers from Mountain
Province, I think that is normal as that has been the case with Baguio lands.
As early as the 1920s, the forested Forbes was named as such and was declared a reservation by the
national government during the watch of Baguio American Mayor Eusebius Julius Halsema, one reason why the
original Ibaloys in the area, out of respect or timidity avoided making improvements inside the forests where they
used to roam.
The naked truth and contrary to the forest reservation proclamation of 1924, residential houses obviously
owned by people from Manila and other places began sprouting along South Drive, Gibraltar, Pacdal, Leonard Wood
road, around Baguio Country Club, Teachers Camp and Brent road at the behest and backing of the powers that be
in Baguio and Malacanang in those years. This situation is painful enough for the Ibaloy whose lands were taken
away then awarded to migrants.
Today, not a single residential house in these parts of the Forbes Reservation is owned by an Ibaloy as they
were uprooted and eased out of their playground through legal maneuvering in the past. Today, we find them inside
settlements on the outskirts but even these lands are being encroached, if not already occupied by illegal settlers and
government facilities.
Despite the passage of a law that was mandated to protect IP rights 17 years ago, help is yet to come
maybe never, unless people in charge of implementing the law take the cudgels for the IP landowner and do not
surrender their power to the whims of politicos.
Apart from the IP sentiments forced out by the proposal to segregate portions of the Forbes forest in favor of
illegal settlers, the DENR cited that the reservation is a natural watershed that supplies water to the city that is on a
very critical level. Certainly, Congressman Aliping and elected officials at city hall fully understand this. Although their
choice is between people who vote and trees that do not.
The groups position was filed with the Commission on the Settlement of Land Problems or Coslap under the
Department of Justice. I hope the concerned agencies, including the Baguio Regreening Movement and the Baguio
Water District, set aside politics and stop bowing their heads to their benefactors for a while, and consistently oppose
the lopsided position. Otherwise, no law can ever stop illegal occupants and organizations from entering other lands
in the future, because they are fully aware that the lands they squatted on are eventually awarded to them no sweat.
Environment Watch
Judge Baggo
Philippine Mining Act of 1995: A curse
to the environment and communities
On March 3, 1995, Republic Act 7942 otherwise known as the Philippine Mining Act was passed into law. As a law
liberalizing the mining industry, the Mining Act was hailed to boost the countrys economic growth. The law was also
hyped to bring rural progress and development especially in communities hosting large scale mining corporations.
Twenty years after the passage of the law, the promises of economic growth, rural progress and
development are pure myths and far from becoming a reality. More than economic growth, the Mining Act paved way
for the massive plunder and destruction of natural resources, displacement of communities, and violations of the
collective rights of indigenous peoples over our ancestral domains and natural resources as experienced by the
Igorot communities in the Cordillera from decades of large-scale mining operations.
Some of the oldest and biggest mining operations in the country are found in Benguet province the
Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company, Philex and Benguet Corporation. These mining operations have left
permanent scars to the residents of Mankayan and Itogon municipalities and other affected communities due to the
destructions wrought by the mining operations on their ways of life, the environment, and to robbing the future of the
next generations.
At the onset, large mining firms have been exploiting our natural resources for gold, copper and other
minerals for the sake of super profit, while leaving mountains flattened, excavated and hollowed; rivers and creeks
contaminated; and peoples livelihood lost. While mining firms indulge in gold extraction, communities face constant
risks and dangers from impending disasters as a result of mining activities. The experiences of mining-affected
communities in the Cordillera region are a living proof and witnesses to the impacts of large scale mining operations.
The ground subsidence and massive sinking of communities in Mankayan which claimed lives and
destruction of livelihood, the collapse of Philexs tailings dam 3, and the continuing pollution of rivers are only a few of
the serious environmental crimes committed by Lepanto, Philex and Benguet Corporation. In spite of these, Lepanto
aims to further expand its operations in partnership with trans-national companies such as the South African
Goldfields Mining Ltd. while Philex continues to use its tailings dam 3.
At present and due to the liberalization of the mining industry in the country, mining companies continue to
target the Cordillera region for the extraction of gold, copper, silver and other minerals, with numerous mining
applications covering more than 60% or 1.2 million hectares of the regions total land area. These mining applications
are coupled with militarization and violations of the Free Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) by the National Commission

on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) and mining companies. These are a cause of trouble and chaos in communities. For
instance, the manipulation by the NCIP-Kalinga in the FPIC process in favor of the Makilala Mining Company in
Guinaang, Pasil, Kalinga is in no way a move that promotes our rights as indigenous peoples. FPIC violations are
similarly experienced in other Cordillera communities.
The mining industry is among the least contributors to the countrys wealth contrary to the governments
claim of bringing about prosperity to the country. In 2012, a study conducted by IBON revealed that the gross-value
added (GVA) of the mining industry, which government itself measures, registered an average of 1% in 2000-2011.
The mining contribution only peaked in 2007 at only 1.63 percent.IBON also added that while the GVA in mining in
absolute terms has been increasing on average albeit in a slow pace, the share of minings GVA to the gross
domestic product (GDP) is actually decreasing on average after peaking in the 1970s.
The Mining Act of 1995 has been selling-out our national patrimony to trans-national corporations. Let us be
reminded of the salient points of the Mining Act which clearly put mining firms in a pedestal while alienating and
plundering our own lands and resources for greed and profit:
100 percent foreign ownership of mining projects;
Foreign company can lay claim to 81,000 hectares onshore or 324,000 hectares offshore;
Companies can repatriate all profits, equipment and investment; Companies are guaranteed against
expropriation by the state;
Excise duties are cut from five to two percent and tax holidays and deferred payment are allowed until all
costs are recovered;
Losses can be carried forward against income tax;
The government commits itself to ensuring the removal of all obstacles to mining, including settlements
and farms;
Companies are promised priority access to water resources within their concession;
Companies are given the right to sell gold directly to the international market without Central Bank
intervention;
Mining leases last 25 years with an option of a 25-year extension.
The Philippine Mining Act of 1995 is clearly anti-people and anti-environment. Worst, it does not protect the
Filipino people from foreign mining firms. The people are neither benefitting from, nor in control, of these resources.
The Philippine government must heed the voice of the people, uphold indigenous peoples rights. scrap the
Philippine Mining Act of 1995, nationalize and industrialize the mining industry for the people. -- (Jude Baggo is
information officer of Cordillera Peoples Alliance)