During Senate Committee Hearing:

Samar leaders reveal DENR allows mining, logging to a protected area

By RICKY J. BAUTISTA
December 16, 2005

CATBALOGAN, Samar   –  The battles of Samareños against forest invaders continues.

While officials in Samar keep on sending statements and resolutions of appeal to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to rescind the government order to resume and extend logging operations until 2007 in favor of the San Jose Timber Corporations (SJTC), other NGO leaders, Samar-Leyte bishops and other prelates strongly insisted that logging cannot be allowed anywhere in Samar Island.

The absence of the official document order to “stop or rescind” the operations of logging, prompted the provincial officials, clergy’s, non-government organizations continue its battle – bringing it to the streets, offices, in the Senate, and in the Palace.

In an email sent by Charo Nabong-Cabardo, a local historian cum environmentalist based in Samar, said, she along with some leaders from Samar Island attended the recent Senate Committee Hearing on the lifting of the logging moratorium called by Senator Jamby Madrigal.

In that Senate hearing, she said, Bishop Angel Hobayan, bishop emeritus of the Diocese of Catarman, Northern Samar, presented the effects of logging in Northern Samar and mining in Eastern, Samar.

Another priest Agustin “Boy” Opalalic read the joint statement of the Samar-Leyte prelates and clergy denouncing the decision made by DENR Secretary Michael Defensor in allowing the resumption of logging in the island while former Eastern Samar Governor, Atty. Lutgardo Barbo presented his stand on “Samar Forest and the Enrile-Defensor Backscatching Tandem.”

On her part, Cabardo said, she presented the history of logging in Samar Island and its significance to the islanders.

Cabardo recalled that in the middle of her power point presentation on a map showing the progressive denudation of the forests of Samar Island, “it drew a dramatic reaction (to the audience) especially from the Senators (Nene Pimentel, Serge Osmeña, Alfredo Lim, and Madrigal) who were present,” Cabardo said.

“Our presentations opened up the issue of mining which Senator Osmeña said is even destructive than logging,” Cabardo said adding that by doing so they were directed to submit all data and statements relative to the mining issue.

Cabardo said that if one were to look at the map of Samar, “you will see the remaining forests declared as a protected area. Yet, you will also see that mining companies were given permits to mine the area,” she stressed.

She added: “And top of this, logging has again been allowed by the DENR to resume in Samar. And the heart of the matter is that the area of contention is where our remaining old growth forests are, where logging and mining are absolutely prohibited even under existing rules and regulations of DENR.”

Atty. Ron Guttierez, legal counsel of Samar group contested the order lifting the logging moratorium saying that it did not even go through the process of consultations with the people of Samar Island.

“(Up to this day), the DENR has yet served notice to any of the stakeholders in Samar and has not yet replied to the requests of the Bishops for copies of the documents,” Atty. Guttierez said as quoted by Cabardo.

On the other hand, SJTC’s lawyer Atty. Poblador who questioned Sen. Madrigal Committee (on Cultural Minorities) when it was supposed to investigate only the displacement of the Manobos in Northern Samar and the way the hearing was going on said “it already expanded its probe to the destructive effects of logging and mining in the whole Samar Island.”

But the Senators who said they have all the authority to expand the investigation chided him. It was learned that Poblador was chided inside the Senate house many times and was restrained from rebutting every statement that was not “good to his ears.”

DENR Eastern Visayas Regional Director Leonardo Sibbaluca, who was also present in the hearing, was pinned by Senator Lim and asked: “Do you concur with the decision of Sec. Defensor, given the strong opposition from the Samareños?

Dir. Sibbaluca apparently could not answer categorically saying, “If done properly, SJTC can be allowed to log.”

At the end of the hearing, Sen. Madrigal remarked: “This Defensor is too powerful, next to God. He controls the air we breathe, the water we drink, the places we live.” She also directed the attendance of Sec. Defensor and other high-ranking DENR officials to attend the next hearing.

Back in Samar, the entire members of the provincial board members of Samar, Eastern and Northern Samar has already approved their respective resolutions urging the President to rescind the order of Sec. Defensor. These officials cited the massive loss of human lives, environment, endangered species and infrastructures once logging operations resume in the island.

Last December 12, 2005, the province of Northern Samar has issued another “resolution strongly opposing the operation and or activities of any logging concession in the island of Samar.” The resolution, which was signed and approved by Governor Raul Daza, also adopted the SINP bill pursuant to the Presidential Proclamation 442.

Vice-Governor Guido A. Lavin Jr., who authored the resolution, said that the three provinces of Samar have “suffered and sustained extensive damages to life and property caused by devastating flashfloods and landslides and denudation caused by devastating rampant and unabated logging.”

“These (logging) activities have been pinpointed as the casual factor of the catastrophic calamities (that) resulted in unwarranted loss of human lives,” VG Lavin said.

A part of the resolution stated that with the consultation held at the people from the towns of Catubig, Las Navas, Lope de Vega, Mondragon and Silvino Lobos, which were adversely affected by the logging in 1970’s and 1980’s expressed apprehension that the said resumption would endanger their “safety and health.”

They claimed that for 15 years of operations, “(it) did not bring any enduring benefit to the island, but flash floods that caused the death of more than 80 people and displacement of more than 60 families.”

Also, if logging operations resume in Samar, officials here said the on-going Help Catubig Agricultural Advancement Project, a P2.6 billion project aimed to increase the rice production in Catubig Valley will surely be affected.

These resolutions coming from the local officials corroborated in the presentations made by the Samar group during the Senate hearing conducted last November 28, 2005.

According to the presentation, in 1989, logging was banned in Samar, Leyte’s adjacent island were some people have moved to Leyte, thereby what they called “Samarizing Leyte.”

The ban, which was pinned by then DENR Secretary Fulgencio Factoran, was the result of a typhoon that unleashed floods that washed away most of Samar villages and killed more than 100 Samareños.

To recall, some 50,000 people were rendered homeless when flashfloods struck Ormoc City and Burauen, Leyte on November 5, 1991. It was reported to have killed 8,000 people. On December 23, 2003, the government declared a state of calamity in Southern Leyte after weekend’s floods and landslides that killed up to 209 people.

Also, the four killer typhoons consecutively devastated Quezon, Aurora and Nueva Ecija, leaving 1,300 dead and nearly half a million people homeless in November 2004. All these incidents were associated to irresponsible cutting of trees in Samar, Leyte, in Luzon, and other parts of the country.