Pax Silica plan not consulted with LGU —Capas Mayor

The mayor of Capas, Tarlac on Friday called out the Bases Conversion and Development Authority’s (BCDA) lack of consultation with local officials over the planned Pax Silica hub in their town.

Capas Municipal Mayor Roseller Rodriguez appeared at the hearing of the Senate Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change over the controversial AI facilities.

“Wala po nangyaring consultation. Ang nangyari lang po, June 22, iniinvite po kami for a meeting without specifying ano po yung agenda,” Rodriguez said when asked by Sen. Kiko Pangilinan.

(There was no consultation. What happened was on June 22, we were invited to a meeting without a specific agenda.)

Present in the hearing is BCDA President and CEO Joshua Bingcang.

EXPLAINER: What is Pax Silica and why are people worried?

The Capas mayor said while there was a meeting with BCDA, details of a supposed technological hub were not discussed.

“In passing, nabanggit po yung Pax Silica, without any details. Basta nabanbbgit lang po na this is a technological hub or something. And then pumutok na po yung sa news about Pax Silica,” Rodriguez said.

(In passing, Pax Silica was mentioned without any details. They just mentioned that this is a technological hub or something.)

“What we are asking now from the BCDA is to have a meaningful public consultation with the presence of all affected stakeholders,” he said.

Bingcang, meanwhile, said that they were supposed to have a consultation but it was canceled. Now, they are scheduled to have a consultation on August 19.

Another meeting has also been set with all the governors and mayors in Region III on August 26.

Pangilinan has told Bingcang to act faster, as the local stakeholders must be informed.

“If we want this to succeed, we have to have the support of those who will be affected by it,” Pangilinan said.

IPs fear being displaced

During the hearing, a local chieftain said that around 1,000 indigenous people (IP) fear displacement because of the Pax Silica.

While the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) maintained that the facilities will not be built on indigenous land, civic groups have raised concerns over the possibility of some IPs being displaced.

“Mahigit po kami na 1,000 talaga, so ang lahat-lahat po, ang census namin talaga duoon sa Sapang Kawayan, nasa 1,000 po kami,” Sapang Kawayan chieftain Petroniza Capriz-Muñoz said.

(It is really 1,000, so all in all, our census in Sapang Kawayan is 1,000.)

Prior to Capriz-Muñoz’s clarification, the BCDA admitted that while the Pax Silica was not technically being built on ancestral land, there were some “settlers” in the area.

“There are 14 households… now it has probably increased, so maybe 30,” Bingcang said in Filipino.

Meanwhile, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) Secretary Nancy Catamco said that their agency estimated that there were 75 households there.

Capas Municipal Mayor said that the discrepancy could be due to the presence of scattered transient homes where IPs would stay during the planting season. He also pointed out that the BCDA’s numbers were out of date, as they were citing data from 2013.

The local IP chief also said that their community does not want to leave, as that was the land where their ancestors were buried.

Asked if the BCDA has already discussed the matter of the burial grounds with the community, Bingcang admitted that they have not reached that point yet.

However, he said that the BCDA will take proper inventory of the people and the property within the area. —VAL, GMA News