Sinirangan Press Club files petition to rescind DENR order

By PIA Borongan
September 1, 2006

BORONGAN, Eastern Samar  – A petition has recently been filed seeking to rescind the order of then DENR Secretary Michael Defensor lifting the logging moratorium of San Jose Timber Corporation.

The petitioner, Sinirangan Press Club of Eastern Samar in solidarity with the Catholic Church, other religious groups and civil society were moved to file the petition citing the enormous destruction it will cause to the environment.

Its more than 95 thousand hectares timber concession, the petition states, is at the center of an old growth forest and critical watershed of the proclaimed Samar Island Forest Reserve (SIFR) in 1996 and Samar Island Natural Park (SINP) in 2003. Thus, resumption of logging operation in the area will cause some 80% destruction to critical watershed and old growth forest which provides habitation to some 2,400 species of flowering plants, 197 bird species, 25 species of reptiles and 12 amphibians, 39 species of mammals accounting for approximately 23% of the total count of land mammals in the country.

The logging operation of the San Jose Timber Corporation prior to the logging moratorium in 1989 was the primary cause of the rapid forest destruction and denudation and massive flooding of seven towns in Eastern Samar. Due to the logging moratorium, Eastern Samar has been spared from typhoon because of the presence of the 120,000 hectares old growth and critical watershed if preserve will infinitely supply the drinking water requirement of the Samareños as well as the agricultural and industrial needs of the island. This, if qualified will show a match bigger value than the taxes that the government collects from the logging companies, the petitioners claim.

The petition further states that the province of Eastern Samar has 19 municipalities inside the SIFR and SINP, a big portion of its area is inside the logging concession of San Jose Timber Corporation. If logging activities will be allowed, flashfloods is inevitable as what happened in 1989. Moreover, the 14,725 hectares of the virgin forest and critical watershed of the municipality of Borongan is inside the concession of the PAVA Logging Company which will also avail of the lifting of the logging moratorium extended to the San Jose Timber Corporation.