Bulacan housing project nixed

MALOLOS, Bulacan — Gov. Josefina de la Cruz has voiced strong objection to the proposed housing project of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) on a 6,600-hectare land in the mountain town of Doña Remedios Trinidad.

De la Cruz said the project violates the Indigenous People’s Rights Act of 1977 or Republic Act 8371, noting that the site in Barangay Kalawakan, records show, is one of the ancestral domains of the Dumagats in Bulacan.

"I will not allow this project to be pushed through," the governor said.

Besides the proposed site being in an ancestral domain, she said, "There are also reports that it falls within the watershed area."

Provincial environment and natural resources officer Juan Vertudes has confirmed that Barangay Kalawakan "is historically part of the ancestral domain of the Dumagats."

De la Cruz cited Section 4, Chapter 3 of RA 8371 which states that "ancestral lands/domain shall include such concept of territories which cover not only the physical environment but the total environment, including the spiritual and cultural bonds to the areas which the indigenous cultural communities possess, occupy and use, to which they have claims of ownership."

Doña Remedios Trinidad was established on Sept. 13, 1977 by virtue of Presidential Decree 1196 issued by then President Ferdinand Marcos.

The town is composed of barangays sliced from the towns of San Miguel, Norzagaray and Angat. It was named after the mother of former First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos, Doña Remedios Trinidad, a native of Bulacan.

In her opposition to the project, De la Cruz told President Arroyo in a letter last Sept. 25, that the housing project was proposed without prior consultation with the local residents and with the provincial government.