Capitol’s motive on 100 Isles hit
BRAGANZA OUTRAGED
ALAMINOS CITY–It’s all about the provincial government wanting to take over the management of the Hundred Islands National Park (HINP).
This, a visibly outraged Mayor Hernani Braganza said, is the obvious motive of the provincial government during a press conference he hurriedly called last week after noting how the issue over the alleged proliferation of illegal fishponds within the Hundred Islands Park had “blown out of proportion”.
Braganza said all the fuss that the provincial government is creating against him and the people of Alaminos City points to a calculated attempt to remove the management of the Hundred Islands away from the Alaminos City government and make the provincial government its new administrator.
The mayor said the provincial government is trying to picture the Hundred Islands as being mismanaged, teeming with fishponds and reeking with obnoxious smell.
BRAGANZA
Braganza said these are “lies” and went on to challenge Espino and other officials of the Capitol to come to Alaminos to see the situation for themselves.
Officials of the provincial government raised the issue of mismanagement when they presented photos of the Hundred Islands to local media that showed illegal fishing structures during the KBP forum on November 4.
CELESTE’S RESOLUTION
At the same time, Braganza accused 1st District Rep. Jesus Celeste of feeding wrong information to Governor Amado Espino Jr. to aggravate the issue.
“Si Governor Espino ay nakuryente. At ang nanguryente sa kanya ay si Congressman Celeste!” Braganza said in an angry outburst.
Celeste, who also held a press conference last week, said he is filing a resolution in the House of Representatives asking the committee on environment and tourism to conduct their probe on the Hundred Islands.
Braganza, a former two-term congressman of the First District of Pangasinan and also served as Agrarian Reform Secretary and Press Secretary, said he welcomes the investigation.
CELESTE
Celeste alleges that aside from the controversial fishponds of the Bolo Development Cooperative (Bolodeco), there are other big fishponds operating inside the Hundred Islands, some of which are allegedly owned by relatives of the mayor.
Celeste said the other owners of fishponds in the area include Salvador Braganza, Tomas Braganza, Gabriel Braganza. Lourdes Braganza-Garcia, Hilarion Redito, Joaquin Casipit, a certain Arzadon and Norma Sison Buedia.
“Mas malaking kasinungalingan. Mas lalo po silang nakuryente,” said Braganza.
Braganza, showing an ortho photo made for the city of Alaminos by architect F.F. Cruz, said all the mentioned fishponds are outside the HINP except the six hectares of Norma Buendia, which is adjacent to the Bolodeco fishpond.
He identified Buendia as a cousin of former Provincial Board Member Rene Sison, a first cousin of Celeste and his brother Arthur whom Braganza defeated in the last mayoralty race in Alaminos City.
Braganza had accused the Celestes of seeking to partition the Hundred Islands, citing a house bill 4995 authored by former Rep. Celeste that seeks to segregate one of the islands of the group to be named “Rene Sison Island”.
While admitting that among the fishpond owners mentioned with the surnames of Braganza are his uncles and an aunt, me maintained that their fishponds are titled and well outside the HINP.
BOLODECO FISHPONDS
Braganza said there is only one fishpond in the Hundred Islands and that is the Bolodeco’s, which was covered by a Certificate of Ownership Award (CLOA) issued in 1993 by Agrarian Reform Secretary Ernesto Garilao.
Records show that prior to the issuance of the CLOA, then Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) General Manager Eduardo Joaquin executed a deed of transfer of 46 hectare portion of the Hundred Islands with Garilao pursuant to Executive Order No. 448 dated February 14, 1991 directing and ordering all government instrumentalities, including PTA, to immediately execute deed of transfer to the Republic of the Philippines thru DAR and surrender to the latter all landholdings suitable to agriculture.
He said Gov. Espino himself, who was then police provincial director of Pangasinan, knew of these because he was an active member of the Lingayen Gulf Coastal Area Management Commission (LGCAMC) created by then President Fidel V. Ramos.
“This is what I puzzles me. All of the sudden, the issue that cropped up in the Hundred Islands in 1980 and 1992, it exploded now as if this problem happened under my watch as city mayor of Alaminos”, Braganza said.
Braganza said the issue about Bolodeco fishponds arose when the fisher folk of Alaminos petitioned that the area be converted into their common fishpond during the time of President Ferdinand Marcos, quickly adding that when it happened, “I was not yet of voting age”.
The CLOA was granted to Bolodeco during the Ramos administration.
Subsequent executive orders reiterated that the area occupied by Bolodeco “will be the first and last to be segregated from the Hundred Islands National Park.”.
The mayor brought newsmen on a tour of the Hundred Islands and showed them the controversial Bolodeco fishpond, which he said, ceased operating three years ago.
He also clarified that it was not corals that the cooperative used in their dikes but limestone, which they might have retrieved from adjacent islands.
Braganza said all the bad publicity is hurting the park as he pointed out how they, without help from neither the provincial nor national government, have managed to develop the area and attract more tourists over the past years.
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