Highlight: When the Emano administration desecrated Cagayan de Oro’s heritage and history in the name of development, it also violated a policy laid out by the city council that, if only followed, would have prevented the wanton destruction of an important part of the Huluga Archaeological Site in Barangay Indahag. (A copy of the resolution no. 4433-99 dated Sept. 28, 1999 that bears the signature or Councilor President Elipe and attested by Teresita Bancoro is printed on p. 7 of this issue.)

Highlight: Cagayan de Oro’s decision makers are ignorant on the importance of the Huluga archaeological sites in Taguanao and Indahag. They really are. It can even be said (even figuratively) that the people steering the city may be suffering from serious dementia (bungaw) or from split personality.

"Huluga Caves: City Hall Guilty of Violating Measure" by LJA, Sun Star Cagayan de Oro, July 11, 2003.

July 7, 2003: After visiting the Huluga archaeological site, and finding some pottery sherds, Mrs. Romualdez Valtos visits Dr. Erlinda M. Burton in her office. Looking on are Museo de Oro administrative assistant Lourd Ostique and Antonio J. Montalvan II.

Highlight: The destruction of the Huluga Cave and Open Site here in Cagayan de Oro is snowballing into a national issues as archaeologists from Manila visited the historical site early this week… Mrs. Eliza Romualdez Valtos, formerly visible on nationwide television as anchor-person of ABS-CBN, arrived in town and visited the Huluga Open Site. She saw for herself the extent of the damage to the site and made surface scans of the area, collecting artifacts which she brought with her back to Manila for analysis at the National Museum …

Following the heels of Valtos, the HCA was also visited by Atty. Trixie Rose Cruz Angeles, one of only two heritage lawyers in Manila…While she was here last year to conduct a cultural seminar, Angeles recounted how she received an assurance from City Historical Commission head Nanette Roa that a “buffer zone” has already been instituted by the city to protect the Huluga area. Angeles, who has also visited the site, now questions that if this buffer zone was really true, then it would have already protected the Huluga Open Site. “It appears now that I was made to believe about the buffer zone in bad faith,” she said.

Added August 9, 2023

In 2003, National Museum lawyer Trixie Angeles (left) met with members of the Heritage Conservation Advocates (HCA) and expressed interest to file a case against mayor Vicente Y. Emano. She even suggested that the 4th Infantry Division be asked to guard Huluga. In 2005, Angeles met historian Antonio J. Montalvan II in Manila. According to Montalvan, Angeles told professors Sandy Salcedo and Victor Paz that they had violated archaeological ethics in Cagayan de Oro because archaeological ethics dictates that local archaeologists always enjoy primary preference. Paz and Salcedo were members of a team from UP-Diliman Archaeological Studies Program (UP-ASP) that came to do research in Cagayan de Oro without involving Dr. Erlinda M. Burton, an archaeologist.