Writ of Kalikasan petitioner calls on PBBM to help Mt Santo Tomas Protection
Photos and text by: Nonnette C. Bennett
BAGUIO CITY – A Social Media post called the attention of Mount Santo Tomas Writ of Kalikasan petitioner Marie Balangue that the video is res ipsa loquitur of the continued violation of Nicasio Aliping, Jr. of the Supreme Court Permanent Environmental Protection Order at the Forest Reserve on August 29, 2025.
“Sana matugunan ito ng Presidente. Kaya po nanalo kami ng Writ, na-prove ng environmental lawyer namin ang cause and effect ng deforestation mula sa Mt Cabuyao at Mt Sto Tomas (within the Sto. Tomas Forest Reserve) na nagflood ang 14 barangays ng Pangasinan noong isang bagyo dahil sa rumagasang tubig na hindi ma-contain.” Balangue called on President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. to do something about this adding that the continued deforestation of the Forest reserve also caused the flooding of nearby province Pangasinan during the series of typhoons in July 2025.
She gave four Facebook links as evidence to Aliping’s development of his property as Nicasio Farm which is the same property that is not supposed to have been developed after the Issuance of the Writ of Kalikasan.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1043103244676117
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=589815727116667
Balangue said, “”Res ipsa loquitur” is a legal doctrine, derived from Latin, that translates to “the thing speaks for itself”. It allows an inference of negligence to be drawn from the very nature of an accident, even without direct evidence of fault.” The video shows that Aliping has continued to develop the area which is a direct violation of the SC en banc directive on June 21, 2022 that said, “permanently enjoins petitioner from performing acts to develop or enhance his claim – such as bulldozing, levelling or any earth-moving activity, and continuing the road construction project – which are the same acts identified in the assailed decision to have contributed to the siltation, and continuing degradation, of the streams and tributaries leading to the Amliang Dam 3 and the Bued River. The directive, in other words, is a necessary restriction to prevent further damage to the waterways indigenous to the Santo Tomas Forest Reserve.”
Aliping was imposed a penalty o P50,000.00 for violation of Section 4 of PD No. 1586 by the Environmental Management Bureau on 14 July 2014 when he did not file and Environmental Impact Statement for the earthmoving activities for the road.
In a statement during the Writ of Kalikasan hearings, then Tuba Mayor Florencio Bentrez on 21 May 2014 said Aliping stated that he would be “undertaking and instituting measures to avoid further damage to plants, trees and the Amliang Dam 5 of the BWD” and assured that any “damage will be minimized if not avoided.”
The SC compelled Aliping to rehabilitate portions of Santo Tomas Forest Reserve destroyed by the road opening activity which covers the two kilometer stretch that starts from his claimed property down to the river at the bottom of the mountain by conducting massive planting of trees. It also required for him to undertake at his own expense measures to minimize, and prevent the further siltation and contamination of the Amliang Dams 1, 2A/2B and 3 utilized by the Baguio Water District. Balangue notes that it has been 11 years since the decision and nothing has been done by Aliping to comply.
Balangue said that even the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has not deployed personnel to guard against further cutting of trees, illegal excavation, and other forms of earth moving activities, illegal mining, construction of houses and other buildings, and expansion of vegetable gardens in the forest reserve. It likewise has not prosecuted the “violators of environmental laws within the [Santo Tomas Forest Reserve], including, but not limited to, the illegal miners, illegal loggers and illegal settlers.”
The Municipality of Tuba has likewise failed to come up with “the necessary ordinance outlawing the issuance of tax declarations over portions of the [Santo Tomas Forest Reserve], and prohibiting the alienation of portions of the same” as directed by the SC.”
Balangue said where is the compliance to the directive of the Writ of Kalikasan of the “[Petitioner], and those acting for and in his behalf, to CEASE and DESIST from performing acts to develop or enhance the property located at [the Santo Tomas Forest Reserve] which [petitioner] claims to be his and/or his brother’s, which acts include improving the old building standing on the land, building any structure thereon, continuing with the road opening activities, concreting any part of the road, and for said [petitioner] to immediately take steps to MITIGATE the contamination of the Amliang dams due to the erosion emanating from his road opening project?”
Balangue said that PBBM might be able to help here because this is also a flood control measure but with the help of nature instead of expensive construction measures if only government agencies do their work.
