CITY OF SAN FERNANDO- A member of a task force against slicing Ma. Aurora town in Aurora to create a new town to be named after Sen. Edgardo Angara’s father debunked yesterday reports of military involvement in the killing of his colleague Romualdo Palispis last June 30 in their town.
This, even as other members of “Task Force: Huwag Hatiin ang Ma. Aurora” and their sympathizers opted to “lie low” amid threats to their lives, said Dickson Almeda, an officer of the Knights of Columbus and one of the task force members.
They received text messages citing a “hit list” that included another Dutch national identified as Alfonso van Zijl.
Tuesday last week, Dutch national Willem Geertman, who had considered Ma. Aurora as his hometown and was reported to have been active in environmental issues in Aurora province, was also shot dead in the compound of his Alay Bayan , Inc. office in this town.
Almeda said he knew Geertman, who was buried last Sunday in Baler, the capital of Aurora province, adding that the Dutch national had supported the campaign against mining and illegal logging in Aurora.
This, even as Almeda also reported that he and other task force members have received text messages warning they would be the next target after Palispis, a former local elections officer who was tasked to deliver to the Senate and the Lower House their task force’s petition against Senate Bill No. 3132 and House Bill 03225 on the creation of the town of Dr. Juan Angara.
The petition was not delivered, as Palispis was shot dead by still a unidentified gunman two days before the scheduled delivery last July 2.
Militants blamed the military for the killing of Palispis, who was a member of Bayan Muna in Ma. Aurora, but in a telephone interview, Almeda cited “credible” friends in military intelligence who insisted that the military had nothing to do with the murder.
“I am convinced that a hired killer did it,” he said, even as he noted that members of his task force had decided to “lie low” on their opposition to the proposed new town amid threats to their safety.
A member of the task force who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation said he was among those who received threatening text messages warning they could suffer Palispis’s fate.
The text messages named Almeda in the supposed “hit list”, as well as the Dutch national, Roger Ampatin, Ruben de la Cruz and a priest who was not identified.
Ampatin and De la Cruz, a Protestant pastor, were among those who signed the task force petition.
Ma. Aurora parish priest Fr. Andres Lumasac led the list of 20 persons who had signed the petition.
The petition that Palispis was supposed to deliver last July 2 was addressed to Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte. It was titled: “Huwag Hatiin ang Ma. Aurora, No to Dr. Juan C. Angara Municipality.”
The petition said the creation of the new town, as proposed by Senate Bill 31 32, authored by Sen. Edgardo Angara and House Bill 03225, authored by his son Rep. Sonny Angara, violated the Constitution, the Local Government Code, was environmentally destructive, would reduce Ma. Aurora’s internal revenue allotment (IRA) and was “self-serving.”
The proposal was to remove from Ma. Aurora nine barangays for the new town. The barangays included Villa Aurora, Suguit, Dialatnan, Ponglo, Dianawan, Galintuja, San Juan, Decoliat, and Bazal.
The petition said the new town proposal violated the Constitution as no prior consultation was ever held among Ma. Aurora folk about the move. It also said it violated the Local Government Code as the nine barangays involved did not have both the required income and population.
The petition noted that the nine barangays have a population of only 5,754 amid a move to encourage migration to the areas to enable the proposed town to have a population of at least 25,000 as required by the Local Government Code.
The petition cited Ma. Aurora’s “forest land use plan” (FLUP) showing that seven of the nine barangays host watershed areas which provide 13 percent of water in the Pantabangan Dam.
FLUP also indicated that of the nine barangays’s 19,500 hectares, 64 percent are forest reservations and only 36 percent alienable and disposable but which already have owners involved in land disputes among themselves.
With this scenario, the petition questioned where the migrated population would be located. “FLUP also noted that the watershed is now in danger due to growing number of people in the area, as well as illegal cutting, encroachment, land conversion and other destructive operations,” the petition noted.
This, as the petition also said that Ma. Aurora’s P80 million IRA would be cut in half if the new town is formed, as the computation of the allotment is also based on land area and population.
It said the new town proposal was also “immoral and self serving.” “We are not discounting the contributions of the respected Dr. Juan Angara, but it is at the level of abuse to name after him so many landmarks in Aurora, especially when the move is made by his son and grandson,” the petition said.
It noted that the late Angara already has a school in Dinalungan town, the biggest sports complex in Baler, the airport in San Luis town, the Angara Hall in Baler Central School named after him.
The petitioners noted that their province is not short of other personalities who also contributed to the welfare of their province, as they cited Commonwealth Pres. Manuel L. Quezon among them.
