Open Letter
Open Letter to the Barangay Council of Ma-a, and Residents of Ma-a
“SHRINE HILLS HAZARDOUS and SHOULD BE A PROTECTED AREA” said Dr Catane, a principal expert on landslides in the Philippines.
We, residents of Ma-a, are extremely worried. By converting our Shrine Hills into subdivisions, we will very likely experience more landslides and bigger (flash) floods in the very near future!
Everybody living in Ma-a has observed that the Shrine Hills have very steep slopes…at some points even impossible to climb. What not everybody knows is the fact that these Hills are not solid rock all the way up. NO! They are covered with sediments, between 10 and 100 feet thick. Nice examples of that can be observed along the Diversion Road, close to the Laud Shooting Range and the abandoned Sports Dome. If you look there at the side profile of these cut-down hills (which are extensions of the Shrine Hills) you will clearly see: layer upon layer of sediment, including seashells. Notice also that these layers are not placed nicely horizontal, but decline downhill…as if ready for a nice slide or ride down.
These sediments are unstable. Every layer was formed in ancient times under the sea and is of a different type…some are fine sand or clay, some are more coarse, some are pebbles or broken sea corals. All these different layers will react differently; once they are exposed to or soaked with water…they will begin to slide over each other. Nature always balances out and rearranges itself to lower levels because of gravity. Luckily, trees, greenery and existing rock formations, all slow down this process.
But by cutting trees, cutting rock-formations to build roads and houses, changing the natural waterways, we risk triggering a speedy natural re-balancing, which mostly involves landslides, floods, loss of properties and in the worst case loss of lives. Examples of that have been headline news in the Philippines and all over the world. Just imagine, what will happen with a combination of heavy rains and an earthquake!!! This could happen, since the same fault line that runs under the condemned Sports Dome, also runs partly along the Shrine Hills.
Our Hills very recently experienced the first signs of man-made disasters:
- Juario Village: rock falls and landslides in 2009, death of a child in a chapel in 2007, more rock falls and landslides in 2006, etc…
- Nacilla Village: houses destroyed in 2000 and movement of the soil (sediment layers) since then.
Let us all unite to stop further destruction of our Shrine Hills, the Green Lungs right in the middle of the city and declare it as a PROTECTED AREA!
This letter was prepared by the Environmental Watch Committee Brgy Ma-a Federation of Home Owner Associations Inc.
For further information you can visit: www.savedavaoshrinehills.com or email: info@savedavaoshrinehills.com
Reference 1- MGB Report July 2000, January 2006 and August 2009.
Reference 2- QSTS Report, May 10 2006
Reference 3- Leo A. Sosa Report, April 2007
Reference 4- doctor Catane, geologist/professor of UP-Diliman , Manila , November 2009
This petition is supported by:
- Kahugpungan sa Mindanao( KAMI )/Mindanao Urban Poor Alliance.
