Signs of a bungled relocation project
INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON
Signs of a bungled relocation project
By Tonette Orejas - Inquirer
SUBIC, Zambales – As the rains poured over the Redondo Peninsula in Subic, Zambales, one afternoon in August, Romeo Altares went up and down the hill, checking for signs of another landslide.
Inside their house, his wife Julieta made sure that their three children and a grandson were all within arm’s reach, in case of a disaster.
The house next door, their daughter’s, had been vacant for over two weeks, although Romeo had shoveled the debris of rocks and soil out of the yard.
“The landslides happened at around midnight. I told my daughter to leave her house and move in with us. We haven’t had a good sleep since then,” Romeo said.
With three families or 13 people taking refuge under one roof, the Altares’ three-by-five meters house is crowded.
Living in the relocation site in Sitio Agusuhin, where they and some 470 other families have been transferred, Altares has reasons to be nervous and vigilant.
Hazards
Their house sits only five meters below the right side of the peak of Agusuhin. The first school building that was built there was torn down after it collapsed two days after the opening of classes in August last year.
The second crumbled in July, with thin steel bars jutting out of walls that have cracked. Abandoned, the structure tilts downhill toward some 50 houses lining the steep, rocky road.
“Quarry is beautiful than this place. Quarry is like a paradise. It’s flat and there are no rocks. It’s safe there,” Julieta said, missing her old village that got its name from the activity of the US Navy there and which the South Korean shipbuilder, Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Co., has occupied since May last year.
On another hill, two more school buildings show signs of a looming disaster. One is built below the other, like steps on a staircase, and only three meters apart. Both stand on clayish soil, slippery and soft on rainy days.
The walls show cracks and portions of the walkway are detaching from the concrete columns. If anything bad happens, the lives of 430 students are imperiled.
For the 221 high school students who come from the sitios of Nagbayuhan, Nagyantoc, Agusuhin, Nagtulong and Kinabuksan, traveling by boat for 45 minutes to get to the school is already dangerous.
“Local officials did not consult with us students when they transferred our school (from Quarry) to Agusuhin,” said Roxanne Amorin, the student council’s president.
Nightmarish
Aside from the unsafe structures, the place is nightmarish for many other reasons, according to mothers like Nida Marcial and Filda Manangan.
Water comes from a concrete, open impounding tank linked to a stream. The Inquirer has not seen any of the three elevated tanks worth P585,500 each in Hanjin’s P18-million purchase order to North Bound Hardware & General Merchandise in Castillejos, Zambales.
The health center is unfinished; so are the two toilets in the elementary school building. Teachers have given up their two sleeping quarters to accommodate more classrooms. Two chapels await completion.
Hanjin’s purchase order did not include materials for the installation of electricity, construction of roads, and drainage systems.
Unlike in Quarry where they had enough food from the farms, the residents now have to buy everything in Agusuhin. They were not given farm lots to till here. Jeepney fare is P30 for a one-way ride to town.
The people rebuilt their homes from money Hanjin paid them for damages. Most, however, used old materials and tents, scrimping their cash for harder times.
“Talaga pong sising-sisi kami (We regret it very much that we agreed to transfer),” Marcial said.
They had “no choice,” they said, because their houses in Quarry were demolished ahead of the relocation project.
The promises of Subic Mayor Jeffrey Khonghun during a meeting in April 2006 seemed empty now, Marcial and Manangan said.
The residents still remember Khonghun’s promises: “We will relocate you to a beautiful place … we will ensure your safety … the site will have power and water supplies, and a school … you’ll get individual titles).”
“He hasn’t visited us here,” Manangan said.
Neither has President Macapagal-Arroyo. The President, however, has visited Hanjin’s shipyard since the opening rites on May 26, 2006. Agusuhin is some 800 meters from the facility.
“She has not bothered to visit Agusuhin,” said former Vice Gov. Ramon Lacbain II, chair of the Task Force Hanjin. The task force was formed by Gov. Amor Deloso to correct the situation at the relocation.
Graft?
Has Hanjin failed to meet its social responsibility even as its $1.684-billion project was the single biggest foreign direct investment in the Philippines in 2006?
Jong Yu Pyeong, Hanjin administrative manager, declined to answer the Inquirer’s questions when reached through his mobile phone in Korea. He said he was on “vacation.”
Deloso considered Hanjin a “victim of pressures of politicians.” He said former Gov. Vicente Magsaysay took care of the negotiations for the compensation of damages to settlers, using armed men to force the people out of Agusuhin.
Reports reaching Deloso said Hanjin released P500 million for the compensation.
But Magsaysay said it was not him but the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) that had negotiated with the residents to move out of Quarry.
“I just handed the money to the people,” he said. Families whose houses were demolished were given a total P24 million, he added.
SBMA Administrator Armand Arreza said “negotiations were done by Hanjin through [one of its consultants].”
“Hanjin just furnished us with waivers,” he said, referring to documents stating that the residents have agreed to leave the former US military reservation, which is within the Subic Bay Freeport.
As for the relocation project, Magsaysay said: “I didn’t have any role there. I just helped transfer the people.”
He said he was not privy to the P18-million purchase order by Hanjin for construction materials.
Khonghun, Deloso said, handled the P18 million for the construction of public utilities. The mayor, however, denied having a direct hand in the project, saying he only recommended the contractors when Hanjin asked him to refer qualified ones.
Deloso said two contractors admitted receiving P3 million each, while the last one got P1 million.
Losing control
How Hanjin lost control was surprising. It set the following “conditions” on its purchase order: “Work must be completed based on the approved plan and discussion of Hanjin Subic representatives” and “materials must strictly conform to the given (specifications), otherwise it will be rejected and returned without additional cost to the buyer.”
Deloso said it was Khonghun who was on top of the relocation project and thus should account for the P18 million.
“Technically, the money belongs to the [SBMA]. It will be deducted by Hanjin from its rental to [the] SBMA,” said Deloso.
Another P8.5 million for 60 people with claims over a reforestation site occupied by Hanjin is said to be missing.
In this bungled relocation project, Deloso said the problem was not how to repair or complete the structures which Hanjin would not pay for.
“Agusuhin appeared prone to landslides and we may have to find another place for the settlers there,” the governor said.
Where the next site would be and how much it would cost to develop a safe, humane relocation would be the sole burden of the provincial government, he said.
“This is a social ill [of investments],” he said.
Signs of a bungled relocation project
By Tonette Orejas - Inquirer
SUBIC, Zambales – As the rains poured over the Redondo Peninsula in Subic, Zambales, one afternoon in August, Romeo Altares went up and down the hill, checking for signs of another landslide.
Inside their house, his wife Julieta made sure that their three children and a grandson were all within arm’s reach, in case of a disaster.
The house next door, their daughter’s, had been vacant for over two weeks, although Romeo had shoveled the debris of rocks and soil out of the yard.
“The landslides happened at around midnight. I told my daughter to leave her house and move in with us. We haven’t had a good sleep since then,” Romeo said.
With three families or 13 people taking refuge under one roof, the Altares’ three-by-five meters house is crowded.
Living in the relocation site in Sitio Agusuhin, where they and some 470 other families have been transferred, Altares has reasons to be nervous and vigilant.
Hazards
Their house sits only five meters below the right side of the peak of Agusuhin. The first school building that was built there was torn down after it collapsed two days after the opening of classes in August last year.
The second crumbled in July, with thin steel bars jutting out of walls that have cracked. Abandoned, the structure tilts downhill toward some 50 houses lining the steep, rocky road.
“Quarry is beautiful than this place. Quarry is like a paradise. It’s flat and there are no rocks. It’s safe there,” Julieta said, missing her old village that got its name from the activity of the US Navy there and which the South Korean shipbuilder, Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Co., has occupied since May last year.
On another hill, two more school buildings show signs of a looming disaster. One is built below the other, like steps on a staircase, and only three meters apart. Both stand on clayish soil, slippery and soft on rainy days.
The walls show cracks and portions of the walkway are detaching from the concrete columns. If anything bad happens, the lives of 430 students are imperiled.
For the 221 high school students who come from the sitios of Nagbayuhan, Nagyantoc, Agusuhin, Nagtulong and Kinabuksan, traveling by boat for 45 minutes to get to the school is already dangerous.
“Local officials did not consult with us students when they transferred our school (from Quarry) to Agusuhin,” said Roxanne Amorin, the student council’s president.
Nightmarish
Aside from the unsafe structures, the place is nightmarish for many other reasons, according to mothers like Nida Marcial and Filda Manangan.
Water comes from a concrete, open impounding tank linked to a stream. The Inquirer has not seen any of the three elevated tanks worth P585,500 each in Hanjin’s P18-million purchase order to North Bound Hardware & General Merchandise in Castillejos, Zambales.
The health center is unfinished; so are the two toilets in the elementary school building. Teachers have given up their two sleeping quarters to accommodate more classrooms. Two chapels await completion.
Hanjin’s purchase order did not include materials for the installation of electricity, construction of roads, and drainage systems.
Unlike in Quarry where they had enough food from the farms, the residents now have to buy everything in Agusuhin. They were not given farm lots to till here. Jeepney fare is P30 for a one-way ride to town.
The people rebuilt their homes from money Hanjin paid them for damages. Most, however, used old materials and tents, scrimping their cash for harder times.
“Talaga pong sising-sisi kami (We regret it very much that we agreed to transfer),” Marcial said.
They had “no choice,” they said, because their houses in Quarry were demolished ahead of the relocation project.
The promises of Subic Mayor Jeffrey Khonghun during a meeting in April 2006 seemed empty now, Marcial and Manangan said.
The residents still remember Khonghun’s promises: “We will relocate you to a beautiful place … we will ensure your safety … the site will have power and water supplies, and a school … you’ll get individual titles).”
“He hasn’t visited us here,” Manangan said.
Neither has President Macapagal-Arroyo. The President, however, has visited Hanjin’s shipyard since the opening rites on May 26, 2006. Agusuhin is some 800 meters from the facility.
“She has not bothered to visit Agusuhin,” said former Vice Gov. Ramon Lacbain II, chair of the Task Force Hanjin. The task force was formed by Gov. Amor Deloso to correct the situation at the relocation.
Graft?
Has Hanjin failed to meet its social responsibility even as its $1.684-billion project was the single biggest foreign direct investment in the Philippines in 2006?
Jong Yu Pyeong, Hanjin administrative manager, declined to answer the Inquirer’s questions when reached through his mobile phone in Korea. He said he was on “vacation.”
Deloso considered Hanjin a “victim of pressures of politicians.” He said former Gov. Vicente Magsaysay took care of the negotiations for the compensation of damages to settlers, using armed men to force the people out of Agusuhin.
Reports reaching Deloso said Hanjin released P500 million for the compensation.
But Magsaysay said it was not him but the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) that had negotiated with the residents to move out of Quarry.
“I just handed the money to the people,” he said. Families whose houses were demolished were given a total P24 million, he added.
SBMA Administrator Armand Arreza said “negotiations were done by Hanjin through [one of its consultants].”
“Hanjin just furnished us with waivers,” he said, referring to documents stating that the residents have agreed to leave the former US military reservation, which is within the Subic Bay Freeport.
As for the relocation project, Magsaysay said: “I didn’t have any role there. I just helped transfer the people.”
He said he was not privy to the P18-million purchase order by Hanjin for construction materials.
Khonghun, Deloso said, handled the P18 million for the construction of public utilities. The mayor, however, denied having a direct hand in the project, saying he only recommended the contractors when Hanjin asked him to refer qualified ones.
Deloso said two contractors admitted receiving P3 million each, while the last one got P1 million.
Losing control
How Hanjin lost control was surprising. It set the following “conditions” on its purchase order: “Work must be completed based on the approved plan and discussion of Hanjin Subic representatives” and “materials must strictly conform to the given (specifications), otherwise it will be rejected and returned without additional cost to the buyer.”
Deloso said it was Khonghun who was on top of the relocation project and thus should account for the P18 million.
“Technically, the money belongs to the [SBMA]. It will be deducted by Hanjin from its rental to [the] SBMA,” said Deloso.
Another P8.5 million for 60 people with claims over a reforestation site occupied by Hanjin is said to be missing.
In this bungled relocation project, Deloso said the problem was not how to repair or complete the structures which Hanjin would not pay for.
“Agusuhin appeared prone to landslides and we may have to find another place for the settlers there,” the governor said.
Where the next site would be and how much it would cost to develop a safe, humane relocation would be the sole burden of the provincial government, he said.
“This is a social ill [of investments],” he said.
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