BAGUIO CITY – The city government has vested rights over the Asin hydro plants pursuant to explicit provisions of Republic Act (RA) 8371 or the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA).
Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan said the Asin minihydro power plants has been existing in the area for over a century or way back before the passage of the IPRA that also recognizes existing property rights over ancestral domains.
Domogan cited that Section 56 of the IPRA provides that “Existing Property Rights Regimes. Property rights within the ancestral domains already existing and/or vested upon effectivity of this Act, shall be recognized and respected.”
“”We have to continue explaining to the land owners that the city government is ready to pay the rentals of the land that have been traversed by the lines of the hydro power plants. We have the money available in the city coffers but what has not yet been resolved is the clearance from the Commission on Audit (COA) and the waiver of the criminal case which will be given by the city council,” Domogan stressed.
The city mayor expressed disappointment that Benguet provincial officials and Tuba municipal officials are allegedly being misinformed by various interest groups and individuals, thus, the need for him and concerned Benguet officials to continue discussing the matter with each other for the attainment of a ‘win-win solution’ to the said issue.
According to him, the city government supports the construction of more hydro power plants along the Asin River provided that their operation in the future will not significantly affect the operation of the city-owned Asin power plants.
Earlier, the Tuba municipal supported the application of a local power company to put up several hydro power plants along the Asin River where the city-owned hydro plants are also strategically situated.
It can be recalled that in 2008, land owners reportedly diverted the flow of water in the Asin River away from the city-owned hydro plants that forced the previous administration to file the necessary charges against them before a local court.
However, when Mayor Domogan was elected as the local chief executive in 2010, he worked out the amicable settlement of the case filed by the local government against the concerned land owners that resulted to the signing of the compromise agreement.
Starting in 2007, the city government was supposed to pay the land owners the sum of P2.7 million as rental of their properties for the operation of the Asin hydro plants which was then under the local government but the damages computed for the diversion of the water away from the hydro plants was at least P2.1 million.
The only condition for the release of the city’s rental was for the land owners to secure the consent of the city council to waive the criminal charges filed against them before the local government could release the computed rentals for the use of their properties.
The land owners were not able to get the waiver of the council considering that their organization that approved the resumption of operation of the hydro power plants was different from the group that wants the case to be amicably settled as per the earlier compromise agreement. By Dexter A. See
