TEMPEST IN THE MAGICAL ASIK-ASIK:

Asik-Asik Falls is a wonder of Nature which the very few poor farmers’ families who lived in a government allocated resettlement area in Upper Dado, Alamada knew was there since they settled in the area.

They heard the gentle pattering of the water falls which they had long considered enchanted and sacred everyday of their lives.

But it took the force of Nature to expose the magnificent falls and bring these to the attention of the outside world.

Covered by thick debris of logs and fallen trees, Asik Asik’s beauty was exposed when strong waters brought by a typhoon washed away the debris a few years ago.

“Before Asik-asik was discovered, nobody cared about us,” said one of the owners of the parcels of land called “allocatees” in the Agrarian Reform surveyed resettlement areas where each family was assigned between 3 to 4 hectares each.

The poor families planted corn and peanuts living simple lives which changed when government men started coming to the area to inspect the Asik-Asik Falls.

Before the Falls were opened to the public in August last year as a tourist destination, the landowners said they were summoned to a meeting by the officials of the village including representatives from the municipality and the province.

The landowners were asked to share 1/4 of an hectare each, including one old woman in whose land the tourist receiving area is located now, who was asked to share one hectare of her land in exchange from P100,000. All the others were promised P25,000 each.

They said they were also promised that they would be part of the development of the area and that their lives would change with the discovery of the Falls.

Until today, they have not received anything from government, including the payments promised them. Worse, they are now considered as eyesores in the area.

When government men through their contractors built the huts roofed with cogon grass, the landowners complained that they were not even given the task to gather cogon grass growing around so they could make a little money.

The cogon grass used to roof the huts was trucked in from the outside.

One landowner who tried to be entrepreneurial and set up a small toll hut in his land where he asked tourists for P5 each as they passed his land was ordered by the barangay government to stop.

Today, he offers his horse for tired tourists earning P50 for a ride from the end of the concrete steps to the receiving area.

One woman said she was asked to relocate her little store far from the place because it “ruined the view.”

“What is in this for us? And who is actually buying our lands, the government or private persons interested to own the Asik-Asik Falls?” asked the most vocal among the landowners.

Now, tourists are asked pay an entrance fee of P30 per head which is reportedly turned over to the provincial government and shared between the barangay, the municipality and the provincial government.

The poor landowners could only look and salivate at the daily earnings Asik-Asik has given people who call themselves “Gobyerno.”

They are wondering whether the discovery of the majestic falls is a blessing or a curse.

A day after I came down from Asik-Asik Falls, people in the area reported that “government men” from the Office of the Governor went up to the area and investigated what I did in there.

Reports from the field said the landowners will be brought to the Provincial Capitol this week for a meeting to settle the issue.

I call that damage control because when I went to the area the disgruntled landowners said: “We have long been waiting for you to come. We know you will come.”

For me, the tempest in Asik-Asik Falls is a result of a government which does not care for the poorest of the poor, a government which believes that it owns everything.

Instead of giving to the poor landowners in the area the right to benefit from what God has given these poor families through the discovery of the magical falls, government has taken over everything after building a few steps of concrete ladder.

In the government people’s desire to promote the area as a tourist destination, they now consider the poor landowners who still wear old and tattered clothes as eyesores who must be asked to step aside so as not to spoil the beauty of the place.

This callousness on the part of government is what actually spoils the wonderful beauty of nature which is the Asik-Asik.

(Photo by: John D. Pagaduan / www.mannypinol.com)