TUBA, Benguet December 03 – The municipal council asserted that proponents for the put up of a state-of-the-art commercial piggery farm in barangay San Pascual should conduct the required consultations with the people who will be directly affected by the environmentally-critical project to ensure that the appropriate processes will be strictly observed.
Vice Mayor Maria Carantes said the municipal government wants that proponents of environmentally-critical development projects in the municipality must observe the processes enshrined under the provisions of Republic Act (RA) 8371 or the Indigenous Peoples rights Act (IPRA), other laws, rules and regulations so that there will be no finger-pointing once problems will occur when the commercial piggery farm will be operational.
“We will leave the matter to the decision of the residents and the barangay officials in San Pascual whether or not to give their consent for the project because they are the ones who will be directly and indirectly affected by the project. We will simply look into the compliance of the proponents to the prescribed requirements for such a magnitude of a project to prevent the occurrence of problems that will have a negative impact to the state of the environment in the area and other nearby communities,” Vice Mayor Carantes stressed.
The presiding officer disclosed that municipal officials have no conclusive decision on whether or not to support the project even after the proponents presented to them the overall concept of the project as there are numerous issues which remain vague, thus, the need for the conduct of a serious of consultations with the concerned sectors and indigenous peoples for them to be able to convince them to support the project.
According to her, the municipal government will closely monitor the compliance of the proponents for the put up of a commercial piggery farm in barangay San Pascual to all the mandated requirements to ensure that those who issued such permits and clearances of the commercial piggery farm will be the ones to be held liable in case there will be serious problems that will transpire before, during and after the put up of the project.
The proposed multi-million commercial piggery farm which will be operated and managed by the Baguio Animal Raisers Cooperative will be put up within a 10-hectare private property in barangay San Pascual where a deed of usufruct was signed by the Baguio city government and the property owner for the use of the land for such purpose for a 10-year period.
Vice Mayor Carantes stated the municipal government will await for the decision of the barangay after the conduct of the required consultations before attempting to look into the matter whether or not the prescribed processes were followed by the proponents.
Vice Mayor Carantes called on the project proponents not to attempt to cut short the prescribed processes and the documentary requirements to prevent critics of the project from raising legitimate issues and concerns against the same that will eventually result to the delay or the eventual stoppage of the project in the future as there are concerned sectors that are simply waiting for the right time to ventilate the perceived problems of the project.
By HENT
