Online Cantilangnon

By Vanessa L. Almeda | Wednesday| September 19, 2012 | Filed under: Top Stories Mindanews

CARMEN, Surigao del Sur (MindaNews/18 September) – On August 18 and 19,  the Surigao Development Corporation (Sudecor), together with local police, apprehended some 190 round red Falcata logs or an equivalent of 157.62 cubic meters, estimated to cost P900,000 at the roadside of Barangay Cancavan, part of their concession area.

CLEAR CUT. Despite the log ban, illegal loggers managed to clear this portion of the forest managed by the Surigao Development Corporation. The company’s operation closure has opened the floodgates to illegal loggers. MindaNews photo taken September 8, 2012 by Roel N. Catoto

A month earlier, between July 14 and 17, round logs and sawn lumber of  yakal and red lauan hardwood species were found strewn and abandoned by illegal loggers  in various parts of Barangay Hinapuyan, also part of the Sudecor area, apparently waiting for transport under cover of darkness.

A documentation report sent to the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro) showed photographs of wreckers in Km. 18 along the Esperanza line in Sitio Gacub, Barangay Hinapuyan and another in Km. 20 at Sagimsim Spurline.

For the Social Action Center (SAC) and environmental watchdogs, the seizure of these logs has opened a Pandora’s box as it led to allegations of  involvement of  officials ironically tasked to oversee the implementation of  Executive Order 23.

Rowil Aguillon, Woods Division head of Sudecor’s Management Committee, said that on Aug. 18, a certain “Jhero King” talked to him over the phone and ordered the immediate release of the logs confiscated that day.  Aguillon narrated that when he refused, King, who was later identified as Roland Seblario, allegedly threatened him: “Wag niyong pakialaman yang mga kahoy ko kundi magkakaputukan tayo.”(Don’t you dare touch my logs or we’ll shoot it out).

Aguilon alleged that the logs documented in July were also owned by Seblario. “Iya man ni tanan ang kahoy, basta gani naa ng wrecker iya na.”(He owns all those logs; when you see a wrecker that is his).

He said they have been sending to Cenro and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources regional office documentation reports, including photographs, of illegal logging activities within the Sudecor area, since June 2011, when the company shut down operations.

He said Seblario also started to drop names including “Gen. Miranda” and Secretary  Ramon Paje of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

“Gen. Miranda” is retired Marine Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda,  Executive Director of the national Anti-Illegal Logging Task Force.

A peeved Miranda told MindaNews in a telephone interview Monday that he will have Seblario arrested if he is found to be “violating a regulation.”

He said he will not tolerate the use of his name to  “commit a crime.”
Miranda figured in the national scene as one of the brains behind several coup attempts against the Arroyo administration. He has availed of the Aquino government’s amnesty program and was appointed head of the Anti-Illegal Logging Task Force.

Miranda said DENR Caraga, headed by Undersecretary Marlow Mendoza is tasked to investigate the confiscated logs, not him.

In the company of

Aguillon narrated that sometime on August 28 and 29, a police official informed him that Seblario and retired Army colonel Harry Taladua, the regional head of  the Anti-Illegal Logging Task Force  in Caraga, were at the Community Environment and Natural Resources (Cenro) here “presumably to retrieve the logs.”

“What we are wondering is why (Seblario) was with Taladua when he is with the anti-illegal logging task force,” Aguillon said.
But Taladua denied allegations he went to the Cenro to help Seblario retrieve the logs.

He told MindaNews in a telephone interview on Sunday night, that he was at the Cenro here, as representative of the task force. Part of his job, he said, is to attend to the concerns of businessmen involved in the buying and selling of wood.

Taladua said Seblario earlier went to his office in Butuan City in Agusan del Norte province to seek “clarification” but denied knowing him on a personal basis.

Private property

“I am not helping anybody. I am just giving them the opportunity to talk,” Taladua said, adding Seblario brought with him a copy of a land title of a Manobo named “Iligan” to show proof that he bought the logs from a private individual.

“It will be up to the Cenro to prove whether the documents are legal since it is now under  adjudication,” he said.

But Aguillon said the company has a GPS reading, pictures and other documents to show that the logs in question did not come from a private land.

He said the logs were cut along the Diwalwal, Plaka and Agasan areas in Sitio Gacub, Barangay Hinapuyan, Carmen and not in the supposed “private property” which he identified as Kadilotan.
Lanuza is the next town from Carmen, some 15 minutes away from the Sudecor compound.

Aguillon said the logs could not have come from Kadilotan because that place is inaccessible and if, indeed, cutting was done there, they would not have been able to take the logs out.

Taladua explained that his visit to the Cenro should not be a cause for alarm as he was “in the Cenro office and in front of the police” and  “not in other places.”
He also said the logs confiscated in August were planted species, not from natural and residual forests. EO 23 bans cutting and harvesting of timber in natural and residual forests.

But Aguillon asked, “who owns the land and who planted it?” He added the company still has authority to apprehend the logs because it is under their Integrated Forest Management
Agreement (IFMA) and even the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer (PENRO) Merlinda Manila “has recognized this authority given to us.”

Permits

Aguillon also explained that the issue is not whether it was planted but Seblario failing to provide the pertinent permits needed to validate his claim. These include the transport and cutting permit and, if it is from a tree plantation, an ownership permit.

Taladua said the government encourages private entities to plant trees which is why it also has to provide help to people who engage in wood trading.

He said the groups who questioned his presence in the Cenro are alleging that the logs impounded in the Sudecor compound are “hot logs.”

“That’s why I told Cenro that it will be up to them to decide whether Seblario’s documents are valid.  “Mananagot din si Seblario niyan pag peke yung dokumento, pero pag hindi naman wag natin pigilan,” (Seblario will be answerable if the documents he presented are fake but if they are not, we should not stop him), he added.

He said those who question the propriety of his meeting with Seblario at the Cenro, “have a wrong impression. I am very strict when it comes to illegal logging.”

The Philippine Wood Producers Association (PWPA) listed a Roland Sevlario as one of its members through its website www.pwpa.org.ph with Jeroking Enterprises as his company.

MindaNews last week made several calls to Jeroking Enterprises in Upper Doongan, Butuan City, the company listed in Seblario’s name, but was informed by the person who answered the call that it was a residential number. Several calls were also made to his mobile number but these went unanswered.
MindaNews went to Jeroking Enterprises in Butuan City on Tuesday (September 18), a compound with an eight-foot high gate and a watch tower but no signage and was told by  Junry Umbal, who claimed to be a guard there, that Seblario was not around and that he left for Manila on August 29.  (Vanessa Almeda/MindaNews)

…Aquino’s total log ban causes pullout of legitimate loggers, entry of the illegal

By Danilo V. Adorador III
Inquirer Mindanao

CARMEN, Surigao del Sur—Weak law enforcement and systemic corruption have skewed the government’s total log ban policy in favor of illegal loggers, tribal leaders and environmental advocates in this province said.

“It seems funny that when PNoy (President Aquino) ordered the log ban, the legitimate loggers came down from the forest, only to be replaced by the illegal loggers,” said Datu Paquito Maka, also known as Datu Makaligoy, a Manobo clan leader based in Barangay Pakwan, Lanuza town.

Datu Maka was referring to the 75,000-hectare forest of the Surigao Development Corporation (Sudecor), which spans this town and neighboring municipalities of Lanuza, Cantilan, San Miguel, Madrid, Cortes, Tago and Tandag City. The area is covered by several Ancestral Domain Claim Titles where thousands of Manobo families live.

Sudecor reduced security in the area since the implementation of a nationwide indefinite log ban (Executive Order 23) that President Aquino issued in February 2011. The Puyat-owned company withdrew its remaining 26 concession guards when its 25-year Timber License Agreement expired in June of the same year. (The company’s 25-year Integrated Forest Management Agreement, approved in 2010, has been put on hold because of EO 23).

The ensuing security vacuum opened a large swath of natural and residual forests, as well as protected areas, inside the concession to illegal loggers, tribal leaders and environmental advocates here said.

Even a number of Manobo families, lured by illegal loggers with cash and goods, have been acting as guides and laborers for illegal logging operators, lamented Datu Maka and Datu Eladio Montenegro, another Manobo clan leader in Lanuza town.

“But who can blame them when they have nothing to eat?” Datu Maka hastened to add.

Rowil Aguillon, management committee member of Sudecor, which has maintained a skeletal workforce in the area, said illegal loggers have started poaching on some 7,000 cubic meters (almost 2,000 trees at an estimated four to five cubic meters for each tree) of cut logs that the company has failed to retrieve in the wake of the ban.

Not for long, illegal loggers started getting their hands on what remained of Sudecor’s concession area.

And that’s a lot.

Aguillion explained that of the company’s total production area of 51,693 hectares, its selective timber harvesting operations has been confined only to over a thousand hectare per year, or about 2.5 to 4 percent of the whole production forest. That means Sudecor would return harvesting on a particular logged area only after 25 to 35 years, ensuring that the whole concession maintains a lush growing forest cover all year round.

But illegal loggers would not discriminate between young and fully grown trees, he said, cutting at will even in virgin forests, watersheds, wildlife reserves and other protected areas that Sudecor had left untouched in 50 years of operating.

Some 190 illegally cut red Falcata confiscated last month by local authorities showed that these were cut from an area reforested in 1983, Aguillon said. The seized logs also indicated that illegal loggers had used heavy equipment, he added.

The August 18 seizure, coordinated between Sudecor personnel and the local police, had been an easy job because the round logs were flagrantly stockpiled in Barangay Cancavan in this town, he said, “in what may have been a demonstration of the illegal loggers’ clout with some enforcement agencies.”

The Sudecor concession has many secondary roads that illegal loggers may use to avoid detection, according to Aguillon.

Merlinda Manila, Surigao del Sur Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer (PENRO), agreed.

The problem, according to Manila, is aggravated by her agency’s manpower shortage. Ideally, at least one forest ranger should guard every 4,000 hectares of forest, she added.

“We only have 10 to 15 technical personnel and forest rangers involved in monitoring the Sudecor area and adjoining forests,” Manila said in a phone interview with the Inquirer.

The last time Penro-Surigao had hired a personnel was 11 years ago, she added, citing the agency’s perennial problem: financial constraints.

But Manila stressed that Sudecor has remained responsible for guarding its concession from illegal loggers and poachers, based on the timber firm’s existing approved IFMA license on the area.

“They’re supposed to guard their own turf, and our role would only be complementary,” she said, admitting that she has received various reports of poaching and illegal logging activities within Sudecor’s concession area.

Aguillon of Sudecor argued that the company could not be expected to spend on security while not in operation. Government should have put in adequate measures to protect managed forest that would be abandoned as a consequence of EO 23, he added.

Amid the finger-pointing, a multisectoral group has expressed concerns over the illegal logging problem that emerged in the wake of EO 23.

“The emergence of illegal logging activities in the province after EO 23 is increasingly disturbing,” said Fr. Raymond Ambray, spokesperson of the Caraga Watch, a region-wide group consisting of religious and civil society organizations based in Cantilan town.

While the group has misgivings for Sudecor— which it criticized for allegedly not being prompt enough on reforestation, among other things— Ambray said EO 23 has spawned far more dangerous effects than what it tried to prevent.

Ambray’s group, Sudecor and the tribal leaders, however, have one thing in common: they all believe that corruption lies in the heart of illegal logging activities in Surigao del Sur.

They said illegal loggers have been using influence to either move truckloads of logs even on guarded highways, or retrieve them when confiscated by local authorities.

Aguillon claimed that on the day of the August 18 seizure of logs, its alleged owner, identified as Rolando Seblario, talked to him on the phone to demand the release of the logs that have been impounded inside the Sudecor compound in Barangay Puyat here.

Two more seizures of illegally cut logs early this year were attributed to Seblario, a wood trader who owns the Butuan-based Jeroking Enterprise.

“Magkakamatayan tayo pag di nyo ni-release yan (We would end up killing each other if you don’t release these logs),” Aguillon quoted Seblario as saying.

When he explained the process of turning over the seized logs to Task Force Kalikasan for proper disposal, Aguillon said Seblario dropped the name of the task force’s head, retired general Renato Miranda.

“Sinong pinagmamalaki nyo? Si General Miranda? Eh tao ko yan eh (Who are you banking on? General Miranda?  He’s my man!” he quoted the insistent Seblario as saying.

A week later, Aguillon said an official of Task Force Kalikasan accompanied Seblario to the local Community Environment and Natural Resources Officer (CENRO), “more likely to negotiate the release of the seized logs.”

He identified the Task Force Kalikasan official as retired Col. Harry Taladua, reportedly second in command to retired Col. Ernesto Ga, an assistant of Miranda in the task force.

Seblario’s attempts to recover the confiscated logs reached the Cantilan-based Social Action Center of the Catholic Church, which issued a press release early last Monday to condemn the protection that illegal loggers allegedly enjoy from the Task Force.

“Illegal logging prevails because they are able to acquire falsified documents and table surveys facilitated by crooks within the DENR,” the Social Action Center press release quoted Dr. Isidro Olan of the Lovers of Nature Foundation Incorporated, an environmental advocacy NGO in Surigao del Sur.

“The reason why illegal loggers are difficult to stop is due to their established connection with high ranking officials of enforcement agencies, politicians, and members of Task Force Kalikasan,” Dr. Olan said.

Seblario is no stranger to the illegal logging circle. In 2008, a National Democratic Front press release named him as one of the illegal logging players in Caraga.

The Social Action Center, which is affiliated with Caraga Watch, also named Seblario as a financier of “major illegal logging operations” in this town and neighboring municipalities.

“Mr. Seblario is said to be the younger brother of a military general from the Philippine Army. He is also said to be close to the head of CIDG Region 11, and his security escorts are active CIDG personnel and PNP Regional Intelligence operatives. Seblario or Jhero King also claims to be a member of Task Force Kalikasan, and he would easily show his ID when confronted,” reads the September 10 press release issued by the center.

Manila confirmed that she had met with Seblario late last month at the latter’s request. In the meeting, which occurred in her office, Manila said Seblario had tried to persuade her to release the confiscated logs, which Seblario said he had bought from the natives.

“I told him (Sebalario) we would release the logs if he could show pertinent documents; he can’t,” the Surigao del Sur PENRO said.

Manila’s predecessor, Domingo Cabrera Jr., was sacked along with 30 DENR officials from Caraga and Davao regions for failing to curb illegal logging activities in their respective turfs.

Manila said Caabrera had been a casualty of DENR’s “two-strike policy” against illegal logging.

Alibaba, the Chinese Internet business directory, listed Jeroking Enterprise as a Butuan City-based company “engaged in lumber and timber operation and trading.” It identified its owner as one Rolando Sevlario.

Likewise, the Philippine Wood Producers Association website (www.pwpa.org.ph) listed a Roland Sevlario of Jeroking Enterprises as a lumber/plywood dealer.

Calls to Seblario’s cell phone went unanswered. His company’s telephone number listed on the Alibaba website appeared to be owned by a different person when the Philippine Daily Inquirer tried to contact it.

Meanwhile, environmental advocates said illegal logging has persisted in Surigao del Sur despite the July revamp at the DENR and the existence of Task Force Kalikasan. They are also questioning the wisdom of EO 23.

Citing reports received from Indigenous Peoples (IPs), the Social Action Center noted that “illegal logging, illegal cutting and illegal lumbering have increased significantly despite the log ban.”

“In Sitio Gacub of Barangay Hinapuyan, municipality of Carmen, more than 100 chainsaws were used to cut Lauan, Yakal, Narra, and Falcata trees. People have also reported that logging equipments such as tractor and wreckers were deployed to make the extraction much faster,” the Social Action Center said.

In the press release, Fr. Frank Olvis, Vicar Forane of Carrascal, Cantilan, Madrid, Carmen and Lanuza, lamented at “the extent of illegal logging proliferating in Surigao del Sur…while the whole nation is placed under a logging moratorium.”

“If the main intent of Executive Order No. 23 is to improve forest protection, how come illegal logging has risen into a scale so alarming, and illegal loggers seem to find refuge under this controversial law,” Olvis added.

By: Erwin Mascarinas, InterAksyon.com

07-Mar-12, 9:40 AM | Jefry M. Tupas, News 5

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Alumni of the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Davao University have followed their alma mater’s lead and come out with a statement opposing “indiscriminate mining” in the country, a position that has earned the school criticism from industry players.

Among the more than 30 signatories are singer-composer Joey Ayala, Brother Karl Gaspar, lawyers Joel Mahinay and Jennifer Ramos, Dr. Jean Lindo, environmentalist Norma Javellana and peace advocate Augusto Miclat.

The Ateneo graduates, who claim extensive work and engagements with various development agencies and grassroots communities, said they are “very much proud of our alma mater for extending its influence in support of the struggle to oppose indiscriminate mining.”

“For a number of years now, many of us have gathered facts on mining from various sources and done analyses to objectively assess its impacts. We have consulted with various experts and sought their counsel as to what we need to do vis-à-vis the aggressive drive of mining companies,” their statement said.

They dismissed claims of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines that mining attracts investments, generate jobs, generate revenues for the government, and improve the lives of the host communities.

“We have gone on exposure to the countryside where there are mining explorations or actual operations and have actually seen for ourselves the impact of mining,” they said.

“This is why we have the audacity to claim that despite the token benefits that we can derive from mining, by and large the negative impact will far outweigh the benefits. This is the reason why a number of grassroots communities have opposed mining. And thankfully, an increasing number of civil society agencies have supported them in their struggle against mining,” they added.

The group called on their fellow ADDU alumni to join them in opposing mining in Mindanao and across the country.

“Let us support this call, even as we encourage all Filipinos to be vigilant regarding the issue,” they said. “Let the truth be told and let justice guide our actions on behalf of our disadvantaged brothers and sisters, and for the benefit of the creation.”

Last month, ADDU hosted a mining forum that was attended by local and international mining experts and advocates at the same time a pro-mining forum was also conducted by the CPM in another university.

reposted: http://www.interaksyon.com/article/26224/joey-ayala-other-ateneo-davao-alumni-take-stand-vs-mining

Editorial

8:23 pm | Tuesday, March 6th, 2012

As in the impeachment court, so it was at the recent mining forum in Makati City, where pro- and antimining advocates engaged in a heated face-off, capped by the sight of arguably the country’s most powerful businessman, Manny V. Pangilinan, losing his cool and calling the environmentalist-scion of one of the country’s most influential families, Gina Lopez, a liar.

We meant the concept of hearsay—in the impeachment court something treated with disdain, the testimony classified as such eventually getting thrown out and declared inadmissible. At the mining forum, words akin to hearsay were also present, but not as one of the bright minds in the room pointed it out: namely, that when Pangilinan and Lopez were trading barbs on the effect mining can have on rural communities, both of them, really, were mouthing second-hand testimony. Perhaps they’ve seen tangible evidence of it on their occasional visits to mining areas, but neither of them has actually lived there, to experience first-hand, in the raw, how it is to be at the receiving end of this wealth-producing but also injurious activity about which they were now at each other’s throats.

The right person to have challenged Pangilinan’s apologia for the mining sector was not Lopez, however well-intentioned or deep into the cause she might be. The right person should have been an actual inhabitant of any one of the country’s mining areas who could testify, in his or her own words, and certainly more eloquently than Lopez could ever manage or Pangilinan could ever hope to rebut, whether gouging huge swaths of the country inside out to extract the mineral riches said to be underneath, displacing residents and perhaps turning the land into a howling wilderness for good, would be all worth it.

But from the ranks of farmers, fishermen and tribal minorities, the marginal and destitute folk who have lived for generations in those remote, undeveloped areas where mining often occurs and that inevitably have to bear the brunt of its aftereffects, no one was at the forum to speak on their behalf. Because, as former elections commissioner and now Meralco management consultant Christian Monsod ruefully pointed out in his speech: “It is unfortunate that two major stakeholders on the issue of mining were not invited to speak today—the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples and the Department of Agriculture.”

Egregious omission, indeed—and quite symptomatic of the long way the mining debate has to go to arrive at a consensus that’s fair, inclusive and acceptable to all sectors. At present, to hear the two sides press their respective cases is to end up with absolutist, polar positions. On the one hand, the mining industry and its proponents have only used the rosiest economic projections—$840 billion of potential profits from reportedly the fifth most mineralized country in the world—to push for full-scale mining as almost the magic pill to drag the Philippines out of its economic doldrums. Meanwhile, they’re quick to dismiss any resulting environmental damage as minimal (only 62,000 hectares, or 0.2 percent of the country’s land mass, is covered by mining claims, Chamber of Mines director Gerard Brimo said at the forum).

The antimining side, on the other hand, points to the staggering devastation of lands, ecosystems and human communities that mining inevitably leaves in its wake—and all for a pittance, really, as the industry’s average contribution to the Philippine GDP from 2000-2009, for instance, was a dismal .91 percent, rising barely to 1.30 percent in 2010. As for the claim that mining can significantly generate jobs, that, too, seems a mirage: Its share of total employment in 2010 averaged merely 0.5 percent, or about 197,000 workers.

Is “responsible mining” possible, a middle way that allows the country to tap its mineral wealth while keeping to the minimum the harm such activity imposes on the environment and the inhabitants (unfortunately, also often the poorest and most defenseless citizens) of the affected areas? Unless that elusive but nonnegotiable middle ground is reached, President Aquino’s administration would do well to proceed with caution on this complex issue. The relentless push for greater laissez-faire in mining should, instead, prod the state to ensure that it is not stampeded into bartering long-term national welfare for short-term economic gains. This is not a game between moneyed factions alone. The entire nation, including its future generations, will live with the consequences of a badly crafted mining policy.

http://opinion.inquirer.net/24439/middle-way-on-mining

03-Mar-12, 12:39 PM | Lira Dalangin-Fernandez, InterAksyon.com

MANILA, Philippines — Several members of the House of Representatives have filed measures declaring “mining-free zones” as they raised concerns over the “destructive effects” of mineral extraction.

Representatives Deogracias Ramos (Sorsogon), Isidro Ungab (Davao City), Cesar Sarmiento (Catanduanes), Eleandro Madrona (Romblon) and Rufus Rodriguez (Cagayan de Oro City) have filed various measures in the House of Representatives affirming their districts as mining-free.

Representatives Carlos Padilla (Nueva Viscaya), Teddy Baguilat (Ifugao) and Mel Senen Sarmiento (Western Samar), Raymond Palatino (Kabataan), Teddy Casino (Bayan Muna) and Luz Ilagan (Gabriela) have also filed similar measures “to protect the environment from environmental plunder due to mining operations.”

“We need to protect our environment, protect our people and put a stop to destructive mining,” the lawmakers said on the 17th anniversary of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995.

Ilagan reiterated her call for the repeal of the mining law and pushed for the passage of House Bill 6242 or the Philippine Mineral Resources Act.

“The measure effectively repeals the Philippine Mining Act and puts in place a mining policy that will give primary importance to the preservation of our environment and our natural resources, ensure the development of mining communities and respect the rights of indigenous peoples,” Ilagan said.

The Gabriela lawmaker said the development, technology transfer and industrialization promised by the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 has not materialized.

“Mining communities are poorer than ever. Many have become unemployed as mining firms offer very few jobs and many families are going hungry with agricultural lands and forests practically bulldozed and denuded.”

She cited data from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau and the Department of Labor and Employment that reveal that employment in the mining and quarrying sector is growing by a small 1.17% annually in 1990-2008 as compared to the yearly growth in total employment in all industries of 2.53% during the same period.

“In the past two decades, mining and quarrying employment has only contributed an average of 0.43% to total annual employment. Multinational mining firms enjoy various tax perks and are charged a measly 2% excise tax on metallic and non-metallic minerals. Where then can we see the mining industry’s contribution to the Philippine economy?” Ilagan said.

She said President Benigno Aquino III should not turn a blind eye on the adverse impact of mining and craft a mining policy towards the preserving the country’s biodiversity hand in hand with the development of our national industries.

Written by : FRANCIS EARL A. CUETO

FORMER Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri warned of “catastrophic brownouts” in Mindanao within five weeks, unless the government moves fast to fix the island’s massive power supply deficit.

In a letter to Energy Secretary Jose Almendras, Zubiri expressed alarm over the current two-to four-hour daily brownouts in many parts of Mindanao, which he said “could worsen into power outages of up to eight hours by April, on account of increased demand associated with the summer season.”

To effectively cure Mindanao’s power supply shortage, Zubiri suggested the following remedies: the temporary deployment of additional power barges to reinforce supply in affected areas in Mindanao; the use of the renewable energy trust fund to grant incentives to entities prepared to install and deliver new biomass, solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and/or ocean power supplies, exclusively for Mindanao, in six to 18 months; and the energy sector’s retention in the Investment Priorities Plan of the Board of Investments, in order to attract fresh capital needed to quickly grow Mindanao’s power supply.

In his letter to Almendras, Zubiri said he was driven to offer his proposals because “the people of Mindanao find it increasingly burdensome to carry out our daily household and business activities, let alone grow our employment-generating industries, in light of the highly disruptive power outages.”

A report by the National Grid Corp. showed that as of February 24, Mindanao has a deficit of 67 megawatts (MWs), based on available generating capacity of 1,159 MWs versus system peak demand of 1,226 MWs.

“However, references to menacing brownouts of up eight hours daily by April imply a real supply deficit of roughly 21.8 percent, or 268 MWs, without counting the 25 percent allowance required for Mindanao to enjoy gross power reserves that match those of Luzon and the Visayas,” Zubiri said.

Luzon has gross power reserves of 22.3 percent, or 1,456 MWs, with available capacity of 7,991 MWs versus system peak demand of 6,535 MWs.

The Visayas has gross power reserves of 27.8 percent, or 376 MWs, with available capacity of 1,727 MWs versus system peak demand of 1,351 MWs.

“Government may have to willfully encourage entities seeking to avail of Renewable Energy Law incentives to go to Mindanao, where there is a clear and urgent lack of reliable generating capacity, instead of installing their facilities in Luzon or the Visayas, which both have ample power supplies,” Zubiri said.

A native of Bukidnon, Zubiri is one-time chairman of the Senate committee on environment and natural resources, and author of the Renewable Energy Law of 2008.

Under the law, an initial P2 billion was provided to “support the development and operation of new renewable resources to improve their competitiveness in the market.”

Money out of the fund may be used as grants, loans, equity investments, credit guarantees, insurance, counterpart fund or such other financial arrangements.

The fund is being supported by emission fees from all generating facilities under the Clean Air Act, and mandatory contributions from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., and the Philippine National Oil Co., as well as royalties from the exploitation of indigenous non-renewable energy sources, such as natural gas.

http://www.manilatimes.net

By Erwin Mascariñas | Friday| January 20, 2012 | Filed under: Top Stories Mindanews

BUTUAN CITY (MindaNews/19 January) — Environmental groups warn that Caraga region could be the next environmental disaster  area after Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities if the local government units and government agencies do not take action soon.

“As the capital of extractive activities in the Philippines and the number one region in climate change hot spot, no doubt, Caraga will suffer/experience same fate as that of Cagayan de Oro City and Iligan City,” said Carl Cesar Rebuta, project development officer of the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center-Kasama sa Kalikasan (LRC-KsK).

In an online interview, the Cagayan de Oro-based environmental campaigner noted that Caraga hosts the most number of mining permits in the country, covering almost half of the total land area of 1.8 million hectares of the region. He said it is also the timber corridor of the Philippines and hosts most number of Industrial Forest Management Agreements (IFMA) permits.

“The remaining and fragile watershed of Caraga is threatened by these extractive activities,” said Rebuta.

He cited as example the case of Mt. Hilung-hilung in Cantilan-Carrascal, which  is covered by an active mining operations, the case of Bukid dako and Bukid gamay of Placer. MRL Gold (Mindoro Resources Limited ) has an active exploration permit in the Lake Mainit areas. Mainit, Placer, and Tubod watershed areas are also at risk since it is now covered by mining operations of Philex. And several more in Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Norte and even the Taguibo watershed issue in Butuan City are all plagued with mining and illegal logging operations, said Rebuta.

Nokie Calunsag, Campaign Officer and Media Coordinator for Green Mindanao, said that if illegal logging activities such as that in the Cortez area in Surigao del Sur and other parts in Caraga region would not be acted upon by the concerned agencies, environmental disaster will ravage the region in the future.

“If left unchecked the ones that will suffer would be the people. We propose that there should be a moratorium to stop logging and mining activities in Caraga for the time being and conduct assessment and study on its current situation and environmental effects. They say that these are all for the development, but the bottom-line is that when the worst happens it is the people in the community that would be at the losing end and not the companies behind the destruction,” he said. (Erwin Mascarinas/MindaNews)

Environmental raps baseless, says company

Inquirer Mindanao

9:06 pm | Sunday, February 5th, 2012

BUTUAN CITY—Four large-scale mining firms based in the Caraga region, including two of the country’s leading exporters of nickel ore, are being investigated for alleged violations of environmental and health hazard laws, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) said.

MGB Director Leo Jasareno on Friday said the investigation was based on several complaints from environmentalist groups and local officials where the companies operate.

“The issues raised by environmental groups and local government units concerned were siltation, pollution, health hazards and nonpayment of extraction, business fees and taxes,” Jasareno told the Inquirer.

He identified the firms as Taganito Mining Corp. (TMC), Platinum Group Metals Corp. (PGMC) and Claver Mining Corp., all based in Claver, Surigao del Norte, and San Roque Metals Inc. (SRMI) in Tubay, Agusan del Norte.

Ryan Culima, spokesman of SRMI, said the order was baseless and was only meant to harass them.

TMC and PGMC are among the country’s leading exporters of nickel ore to Japan, China and Australia.

The firms’ mine sites were attacked by communist rebels last year in what a rebel leader called “revolutionary” punishment for causing massive environmental havoc and displacing indigenous communities.

Lapses

Jasareno said Friday’s aerial survey and actual ocular inspection of the mine sites showed “lapses” on the part of the firms’ compliance with environmental and health hazard laws.

“We found siltation along the coastal shores in Surigao del Norte and these are environmental lapses,” he said.

These environmental lapses, he said, which posed serious threats to the environment and health hazards to local communities were valid grounds for the closure of the firms.

“Still, notices to the companies will be sent and multipartite monitoring teams are going to the areas again for confirmation, and if they fail to reasonably explain, then it will be a valid ground to close down their operations,” he said.

Jasareno said there would be no sacred cows in its effort to cleanse Caraga mining industry and promote responsible and sustainable mining.

Dubbed the country’s new mining capital, Caraga reportedly holds half of Mindanao’s mineral deposits. It is touted to have $2 billion worth of gold deposits, and huge deposits of nickel and chromium ores.

Shelved applications

At least 14 mining firms are operating in various parts of Caraga, while 15 others are doing exploration operations.

“We fear no one. The MGB is just upholding its mandate otherwise nobody will believe us anymore,” Jasareno said.

To show that the agency is determined to allow only those firms that adhere to environmental laws and social responsibilities to operate, more than 74 unscrupulous mining applicants for large and medium-scale mining in the region had already been shelved.

Environmental activist Gina Lopez, who joined Jasareno and several other journalists in Friday’s inspection of the 1,300 hectares of mining area of SRMI in Tubay town, lamented that the mining operations had turned the town into an eyesore.

Lopez also raised before the firms’ officials their supposed failure to pay the town’s displaced communities amid a whopping P4-billion revenue they were generating.

Tubay Mayor Sadika Garcia-Tomaneng said the municipal government had long issued a closure order to SRMI for alleged failure to pay millions of pesos in extraction fees and taxes and violations of environmental laws, but that the firm had remained defiant.

“As far as SRMI is concerned, we committed no environmental lapses. We performed our social responsibilities and paid our dues. We are very transparent that’s why we welcome this inspection,” Culima said.—Franklin A. Caliguid

As Davao City hosts two forums initiated by pro- and anti-mining groups last week, Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s made his position very clear: mining will convert its host community into a wasteland.

Speaking in the public affairs program, “Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa,” he said that promises of rehabilitating mining sites by large-scale firms is nothing but mere lip service, citing the situation in Compostela Valley which failed to truly improve the economic condition of the residents in the area.

But Duterte, also a former government prosecutor, said even if the city government will enact an ordinance to prevent the entry of mining companies, it cannot “overcome” the national policy which allow mining.

Even then, he added, mining companies will still find it difficult for them to enter the city because the city government has the right to refuse the granting of their permits.

In the attempt to push for preventing mining activities in the city, Third District Rep. Isidro T. Ungab filed a resolution before the House of Representatives to declare the city “mining free.”

That order, Duterte said, “will prevent the Mines and Geosciences Bureau and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to allow mining in the city.”

Mines and Geosciences-Davao Region Director Edilberto L. Arreza earlier said there were companies that wanted to explore the city for mines, but the city government rejected them all.

Duterte said often, it is the mining firms that get rich at the expense of ordinary Filipino miners.

“When the big corporations leave, we are left with nothing but empty bags of heartaches,” he said.

Duterte said that Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio shares his advocacy in preserving the environment and protecting the people. “Mining destroys our land and our forests. It will leave us nothing but problems in law and order, “he said.

Repeal law

Organizers of the International Conference on Mining in Mindanao have called on the national government to finally revoke the executive order that seeks to revitalize the mining industry and also repeal the Philippine Mining Act of 1995.

The official statement of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) and Ateneo de Davao University (AdDU) cited that the present mining act and Executive Orders 270 and 270-A are “anti-Filipino, anti-environment and violative of human rights.”

The executive orders were penned by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo which stated that the “government recognizes the critical role of investments in the minerals industry for national development and poverty alleviation.”

The official statement of the organizers was issued after the International Conference on Mining in Mindanao last Friday at AdDU. It was published in www.ecoteneo.org, the official website of the forum’s organizers.

CEAP, for instance, is an association of 1,252 Catholic member schoolsin the country.

Amid the need to revoke the executive orders and repeal the mining act, the organizers pushed for the enactment of the consolidated alternative minerals management bill which is still pending in the House of Representatives.

The proposed bill intends to scrap the Philippine Mining Act. The proposal pushes for conservation of non-renewable mineral resources in the country for the benefit of the public and avert further environmental degradation.

“We further call for an immediate mining moratorium and suspension and cancellation, if applicable, of all mining operations, licenses and applications, while the relevant mining policies are being reviewed; and concerned government agencies be held accountable,” the official statement added.

The organizers said the government already confessed in its Philippine development plan from 2011 to 2016 that “there is no standard resource and environment valuation and institutional issues need to be addressed to ensure sustainability of the country’s fragile environment and natural resources.”

(with reports from Carmelito Francisco and Kristianne Fusilero)

Reposted from: http://davaocitynewsfeed.blogspot.com

via: www.mindanaotimes.net, By Jose Dalumpines

NEWS AGGREGATED FROM: Sunstar Davao, MindanaoTimes.net,EdgeDavao.net, PIA, Bworldonline.com