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Bontoc tribes sue Globe Telecom

Sacred place desecrated

BONTOC, Mountain Province (Oct. 14) — The tribes of the Bontoc Ili sued Globe Telecommunications, Inc. (Globe) at the Regional Hearing Office of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in Baguio City when the company defied the protest of the barrio officials and elders against any construction in Sachag of the Channog ridge, a sacred place the locals call wawallitan.

A hearing is scheduled on October 18. Pending litigation of the complaints NCIP suspended the construction of a relay station, which started last month.

The Bontoc tribe delineated Wawallitan in the mountain as a site where they perform rituals in venerating the souls and spirits of their ancestors.

Globe, a giant telecommunications company, now rapidly expanding in the hinterlands, has programmed at least four relay stations in the capital town of Bontoc. Two of these structures have already been erected, one in Mount Polis and one in Bontoc Ili.

George Lumiwes, NCIP provincial information officer revealed that Globe violated Republic Act 8371 or the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) when it persisted in building a relay station in a place the Bontocs consider sacred.

Lumiwes said, “It became a practice of telecommunication companies to ignore the free and prior informed consent (FPIC) of the communities in their projects.” He cited the Globe’s relay station in Bontoc Ili as the most recent case.

Komicho, an elder and barangay council member of Bontoc Ili, said, “Now, Globe has blatantly desecrated our wawallitan by defying our earlier protest and request for it to transfer their construction site to other site in area.”

Further, he mentioned that in the early ‘90s, a brigade of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) attempted to establish a temporary camp in the area. They bulldozed exactly the place where members of their clan do the walit. The AFP abandoned the area when the people protested against it.

The records of the NCIP-Mt. Province showed that on March 10, the people of Bontoc Ili protested the construction of any cell site in sitio Sachag-Channog. They too requested the intervention of the concerned government offices.

Globe continued in its construction, apparently using Barangay Res. # 4 S. 2004, as permit. The said resolution grants clearance to for the telecommunications firm to construct, install, operate and maintain a radio base station in barangay Ili.

Again, on July 26, a protest was filed and Globe was requested to transfer its installations to another site. Because of the defiance of Globe, a case was filed in court.

Accordingly, Globe violated the FPIC provisions of the IPRA law including section 33 - the provision on the rights to religions, cultural sites and ceremonies; the right to maintain, protect and have access to cultural sites.

In another case involving Globe, residents of Balili, a barangay of Bontoc are also protesting the scheduled installation of a communications facility in their area because of the refusal of the company to get the proper consent of the people. # Joseph Pangket for NORDIS

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