CITY OF TABUK, Kalinga — The Provincial Advisory Council (PAC) of the Kalinga Provincial Police Office (KPPO) agreed to request the provincial government through the Sangguniang Panlalawigan Committee on Oversight to enact an ordinance seeking for the removal of the special marker of three local heroes built within roadS right of way of a national road.
The memorial of Macli-ing Dulag and two other tribal leaders, Pedro Dungoc and Lumbaya Gayudan, erected by the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) along the national road (Mt. Province boundary-Calanan-Pinukpuk-Abbut Road) particularly Bugnay section in Tinglayan in 2017 is situated within the road right of way.
The memorial accordingly is “in honor of the heroism of Macliing Dulag and all who resisted the Chico River Dam project.”
Reports of the Upper Kalinga District Engineering Office engineers who conducted validation show that the marker is situated 4.10 meters from the centerline of the road and that it encroached or is within the road right of way of the national road.
KPPO Director PCol. Davy Vicente Limmong also wrote PAC Chairman Engr. Andres Ngao-I urging the Council to look into this project, which he said is in violation of Provincial Ordinance No. 2017-003 declaring Barangay Bugnay as “Heritage Village” in honor and in memory of the bravery of the late Macli-ing Dulag and Pedro Dungoc, and the provisions of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) guidelines.
Explicitly provided under NHC guidelines is “xxx b) No monument sponsored by any private individual, organization or the honoree’s kin shall be allowed on any public space, unless the same is intended as a donation to the government and is sanctioned by a national government agency or local government unit, subject further to public acceptance and approval of a Board Resolution by the sanctioning government agency. xxx”
UKDEO Assistant District Engineer Teodoro Owek said they will write Windel Bolinget, chairperson of the CPA, to inform their group that said memorial along the national road is illegal.
Earlier, the Butbt tribe of Kalinga passed a resolution condemning in its strongest terms the continuous unauthorized use by the CPA of the names of their local heroes particularly Macli-ing Dulag, Pedro Dungoc and Lumbaya Gayudan to further their political agenda.
In Resolution No. 01, s. 2020 signed by siblings of said martyrs, tribal elders, and barangay officials, they alleged that the CPA is luring innocent people especially students to join the cause of the so-called Makabayan Bloc and indoctrinating them with the left’s ideology and also making it appear that Dulag, Dungoc and Gayudan were once their members. **JDP/PAB-PIA CAR, Kalinga
