Lies about Aurora ecozone
Jerik Cruz has been continuously putting down the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport Authority (Aurora Pacific Ecozone) through lies (“Angara’s Acef is just the tip of the iceberg,” Opinion, 5/16/14). It is high time to belie his nonstop rumormongering. Cruz is hurting not only the Casiguranin and Dumagat-Agta.
The Aurora Pacific Ecozone is a big help to us; it inspires us to dream of and work for a better life. What has Cruz and his group done for the people of Casiguran?
Because of the ecozone, the people of Casiguran and those of its neighboring towns—Dinalungan, Dilasag and Dinapigue—the Baler-Casiguran Road was built. A 3-day land trip now takes about two hours. Business is better: And we have more visitors, and more and more of our provincemates and townmates elsewhere are coming home more often.
Cruz has been harping on the issue of land-grabbing for a long time but has not presented any proof or person to back his claim. No Casiguranin or Dumagat-Agta has been deprived of their land.
All government agencies are under scrutiny by the Commission on Audit (COA). Cruz’s issues against the ecozone management are all rehashed. The ecozone has remained “COA-sensitive” and has been cooperating with the COA, acting on the latter’s findings and recommendations, even filing charges, if warranted.
Cruz has repeatedly alleged that the ecozone project dislocated settler-farmers from the Ilocos and Bicol regions. The land he points to is one that Governor General Frank Murphy declared in Proclamation No. 723 in 1934 as a school reservation. Is it not then the settler-farmers who have caused the dislocation of Casiguranin who are supposed to benefit from the reservation?
Cruz and his group also blame the ecozone for stopping the evaluation of the proposed extension of the Integrated Social Forestry Management Agreement. The community environment natural resources officer himself has said it was Cruz’s group that stopped the evaluation.
Cruz’s group has also alleged that the Aurora Pacific Ecozone stopped fishermen from fishing. This is a false allegation. Again, Cruz has not shown, because it cannot, any proof or anyone to support this claim.
Cruz’s group staged a march from Casiguran to Malacañang, making it appear that Dumagat people from Casiguran led the march. The march’s “leaders” were from Quezon province and could not even speak Casiguranin, as shown during their audience with President Aquino. During that march, one of Cruz’s people molested a Dumagat-Agta but Cruz’s group kept mum about the incident.
Cruz and his group filed cases in the Supreme Court, using persons and groups, among them Dumagat-Agta who actually fully support the Aurora Pacific Ecozone project. Cruz and his group have dragged the good name of Sen. Edgardo J. Angara into the picture. Angara is fully supportive of the Aurora Pacific Ecozone but he was never involved in its operations and activities.
The membership of Cruz’s group is dwindling. It’s because people are fed up with his lies.
—CONCHITA DESCARGA,
barangay captain and
Dumagat-Agta leader,
Calabgan, Casiguran, Aurora
