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Forced Land Sales at Masinloc
First Published: Reflections - Philippine Daily Inquirer Publication Date: 18th July 1994 Author's Name: Father Shay Cullen SSC The President's blue and white helicopter with military escorts came across Masinloc bay like a band of wasps. The noise and whirl of the rotor blades stirred the dust and the protest banners of the people of Barangay Bani. They stood by their hundreds beyond the barriers of riot troops armed with shields and batons. Battle ready troops ran from personnel carriers to defensive positions around the landing area.The president walked across the freshly bulldozed fore shore, passed the jagged stumps of newly chain-sawed coconut trees and reached the roofed platform where the cut trees were now crude posts supporting the structure from where impassioned speeches about saving the environment would be delivered. With the President came with a clutch of dignitaries from the Asian Development Bank, the Import/Export Bank of Japan, cabinet members, diplomats and the President of the National Power Corporation (NPC) and local politicians. A gaggle of media people however completed the cast for the latest show by an NPC desperate to convince the banks that the planned coal plant was now socially acceptable. The masquerade was undone however by the chant of the barricaded protesters. "No to the coal plant, No to the coal plant." they cried as a flurry of banners and placards strained to wave above the military trucks and fire engine that blocked the protesters from the view of the nervous and uncomfortable looking bankers and diplomats. As I walked among the people I recognized many from my previous visits as residents, land-owners and tenants of Bani. Their Priests, nuns and their Bishop stood with them quietly in solidarity. The previous night the parish Priest Fr. James Laquindanum led a long candle lit procession to the proposed plant site to mourn the cutting of the trees to pray for justice and the creation. Their procession was blocked in a tense and emotional scene. The ground-breaking was a contradiction. NPC has claimed that they had settled amicably with the land owners except for a few and have probably misled the press and misinformed the President. In fact they had previously filed ex-approbation cases against the land owners and sent them threatening letters announcing forcible seizure and occupancy of their lands. Court hearings are in progress. NPC cited their power of immanent domain and quoted the much reviled Marcos Presidential Decree 1818 that tried to legalize the confiscation of private land and property of the enrichment of his family and business cronies under the guise of development projects for the 'national interest". Even now the dictator reaches out from the grave and finds willing hands to greet him with gratitude. Wrapping themselves in this cloak of death is a grave disservice to the President. How else can he know the real situation other than what the "official reports" tell him. They can be slanted, warped and designed to ease and please. The president was visibly irked by the chanting crowds while he had to read from his prepared script , ""There is now social acceptability". At that point, realizing the contradiction on his lips and honest man as he is he abandoned the text and ordered the troops and barricades withdrawn and the people allowed into the site. By now they were more than a thousand strong. They stood there with quiet dignity. The truth was there for all to see and record. Why is there such determined and organized opposition. Isit really a bunch of lefties, environmental fanatics or activists looking for a cause, any cause to embarrass the government? A few perhaps but the truth is that there are many genuine residents of Bani who are not absentee landowners and have lived in this beautiful place by the sea for generations. These people who have tilled the soil, planted and nurtured their farms and trees, reared their families far from the maddening crowds and the choking clouds of industry hate to see their heritage and orchards taken over and bulldozed flat for a smoking wheezing coal plant by outsiders who don't give a damn for them or what they hold precious. Secondly they don't believe a word the NPC says about safety, pollution controls and the like. The people are wise and know that they are powerless to undo the harm, restore the land, purify the air and live in peace once the construction begins. Napocor knows that too. Taking over all that they own is the great injustice and sin that is being committed against them. The bankers who ignore this and pretend that the requirements of the loan are met do so at the cost of their own credibility and they contradict their own polices and principles .Who can trust the bankers then? And a bank without trust is on the road to failure and ruin.
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