Land Speculation

The new roads east of Buguias have provided opportunities for speculators as well as gardeners. Local land speculation dates to the credit schemes of the late 1960s; bank loans had to be secured with real estate, whether titled or declared, and the only broad areas still available lay in the eastern reaches of the municipality. While property claims were officially limited by one's ability to pay tax (as determined by the assessor), even persons of moderate wealth could obtain tens of hectares of undeveloped land.

Although these lands were initially declared as loan collateral, a few individuals realized their development potential should a road reach the area. By the early 1970s, a handful of speculators rushed to stake out lands along the planned transport corridor between Bot-oan and Tinoc. One wealthy Buguias couple even claimed a plot on the highest pass, intending to build a cafe there to service the buses that they thought would soon ply the Tinoc route. Such explicitly speculative declarations were largely held by residents of Buguias and nearby valley communities, but a few locals also claimed large plots, in part to protect themselves from the outsiders. By the mid-1970s, virtually all lands of any agricultural potential had been declared.

A tax declaration is difficult to define in the cloud forest. Landmarks are rare, visibility through the dense forest is low, and movement is constrained. Some speculators thus cleared their plots of all woody growth. Although most cloud-forest trees readily stump-sprout, continued recutting has reduced these parcels to a low

scrub. This needless degradation has prompted some resentment, but no one is powerful enough to contend with the economic interests involved.

Few of the Buguias speculators reaped the profits they had anticipated. The Tinoc road stalled and the general pace of transport development slackened. When the vegetable industry stagnated, many could not afford their taxes, and therefore allowed their declarations to pass into delinquency. As feeder roads were slowly built, most declarants sold their remaining parcels piecemeal, sometimes at a fair profit, to the wealthy Bot-oan farmers.

But when the municipality initiated extension of the Bot-oan road in 1985, several declaration holders finally made good. It is of interest that the most successful was not a speculator but rather a local ritualist. Many years earlier, this modest man had declared several hectares of relatively flat and rich land near his home and exactly proximate to the future roadway. He managed to pay his taxes, while leaving virtually the entire plot in virgin oak forest. When the road pushed through, his parcel suddenly gained value, and when a wealthy Bot-oan farmer offered him 20,000 pesos a hectare, he happily sold.

In 1975, before even Bot-oan had road access, a hectare of land in this area could hardly have sold for 200 pesos. The following years saw fierce inflation; by 1985, the price of a large animal had increased some tenfold. Yet as this case shows, prime land on the cloud forest fringe could appreciate as much as a hundred times. Clearly, land speculation could yield spectacular gains.

By early 1986, this particular plot had already been bulldozed clear of vegetation and topsoil. The new owner had hired several local residents, who had earlier raised hogs for their cash needs, to sharecrop the land. Potential tenants are not lacking here; the market is a strong lure, and most residents prefer to begin gardening by working for a successful entrepreneur rather than by cultivating a tiny and underfinanced private garden.

Agricultural development in eastern Buguias municipality has primarily benefited three parties: wealthy farmers, a few lucky land speculators, and bulldozer owners.^[2] For most local residents, the results are mixed. Although now more prosperous than before, they must share the risks and the dim future of the vegetable industry. Nor is expansion itself without economic contradictions;

the overall vegetable harvest grows faster than demand, lowering profits elsewhere.

But the eastward march of the vegetable frontier is most threatening ecologically. As the cloud forest of eastern Buguias municipality vanishes and as new irrigation works are installed, stream flows gradually diminish, undercutting Agno Valley irrigators. In several areas of the municipality, formerly verdant rice terraces are now dry, most likely because of water development upslope. As their natural endowment deteriorates, farmers in the lower valley may find it exceedingly difficult to compete with those who have recently developed rich, new lands. And as economic and ecological problems mount, social and political turmoil grows apace.