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

A provincial board member of Surigao del Sur was shot dead Sunday morning by two unidentified gunmen moments after coming out from a mass at St. Joseph the Worker Parish Church at Forest Drive Village in Barangay San Roque, Bislig City.

Bislig City is about 170 kilometers from Butuan City, Caraga region’s capital.

In a mobile phone interview, Chief Supt. Reynaldo S. Rafal, Caraga Police regional director, identified the victim as Rafael M. Viduya, 58, married and provincial board member from Surigao del Sur’s second district.

Viduya was also a resident of Forest Drive Village, a former Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines (PICOP) area in Barangay San Roque, Bislig City.

Rafal said Viduya’s assassins used .45 caliber pistols in the shooting.

Initial investigation conducted by Bislig City Police Office disclosed that as Viduya came out from the church after the Mass, the armed suspects approached him and shot him pointblank several times.

The gunmen immediately fled toward the southern part of Bislig City on board two motorcycles.

The victim was rushed to the Andres Soriano Memorial Cooperative Hospital in Barangay Cumawas, Bislig City but he was pronounced dead on arrival by the attending physicians.

According to Rafal, Viduya sustained five gunshot wounds in different parts of his body.

Recovered from the crime scene were seven fired cartridges from caliber .45 pistol.

Scene of the Crime Office (SOCO) operatives of Surigao del Sur Provincial Police Office are now assisting the personnel of the Bislig City Police Station in conducting thorough investigation, Rafal said. (BS/PIA-Caraga)

BUTUAN CITY – Dead on arrival ang chief of police ng Bayabas, Surigao del Sur matapos itong barilin ng sariling kasamahan kaninang hapon sa loob mismo ng Bayabas Municipal Station sa Bayabas, Surigao del Sur.

Sa panayam ng Bombo Radyo Butuan kay P/Supt. Martin Gamba, public information officer ng PRO-13, kinilala nito ang biktima na si Insp. Edgar Dico, hepe ng police station, samantalang ang suspek ay natukoy na si PO3 Lord Anthony Lerin na sugatan din.

Sa inisyal na imbestigasyon, isinugod pa sa Adela Serra Ty Memorial Medical Center sa Tandag City ang hepe makaraan ang pangyayari ngunit idineklara itong patay ng attending physician.

Sinasabing may dalang M16 armalite rifle ang opisyal, habang gamit naman ni Lerin ang kanyang service firearm na kalibre .45.

Patuloy pang inaalam ng mga imbestigador ang dahilan o pinag-ugatan ng naturang krimen, pero lumalabas na merong hindi pagkakaunawaan ang dalawa.

(bomboradyo)

LANUZA, Surigao del Sur, Philippines – Economic activity in this part of Surigao del Sur is now in high gear after the Surigao del Sur 1st District Engineering Office (SDS 1st DEO) of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) announced Friday the completion of retrofitting, rehabilitation, strengthening of the Bocawe Bridge and approaches located here, which is a vital road component that connects the southern and northeastern municipalities in this Pacific Ocean facing province.

SDS 1st DEO District Engineer Joseph R. Calderon said that the completion of these infrastructure projects were ahead of schedule, while other on-going projects are already hitting their target timeline of completion.

In a related development, the national government now has a partner on environment preservation and forest protection campaign, eco-system, global warming and climate change mitigation programs, when for the first time a private firm proposed the “Adopt a 1,000-hectare Forest land” (A1-FL) project.

It was learned that the proposed concept will help the government in the preservation and protection of the remaining forest land from timber poachers and wildlife hunters.

This developed during the exit briefing of the two-day visit of top officials from the Forest Management Bureau (FMB), Environment Management Bureau (EMB) and Mines and Geo-Sciences Bureau (MGB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) from central office Manila at the concession area of the PhilSaga Mining Corporation (PSMC) in Rosario, Agusan del Sur.

The visiting officials gave a good and satisfactory rating to the PSMC for its continuing support to the national government’s environment program, such as “greening” and various social and infrastructure projects and livelihood to the various communities.

During the exit briefing on Thursday, PSMC president Col. Samuel G. Afdal proposed that the A1-FL project is aimed at preserving the remaining forest in the area.

“We will protect and manage this area if the government will give in to this idea. I think this is a great help in preserving our remaining forest, and at the same time, also protects our wildlife,” said Afdal.

The Philsaga also plans to plant fruit-bearing trees at the proposed A1-FL in Rosario town and nearby the border of Surigao del Sur for the consumption of wildlife and for eco-system, and at the same time making the program as tourism area in Northeastern Mindanao.

In another development, police stations spread at various areas in the Caraga Region got the corresponding boost for their fighting capabilities to deter criminality and insurgency problem with the arrival of brand new service vehicles.

The seven new patrol Toyota Hilux vehicles were blessed the other day by the Police Regional Office 13 (PRO 13) Chaplin, and witnessed by top regional police officials, mayors, and chiefs of police of the recipient municipal police stations of Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Sur, and Agusan del Norte, during a simple ceremony at the PRO 13 regional headquarters at Camp Rafael C. Rodriguez in Butuan City.

(Manila Bulletin)

By Satur C. Ocampo

(The Philippine Star) Updated October 08, 2011 12:00 AM

The New People’s Army’s well-executed raids last Monday on three mining firms in Claver, Surigao del Norte  razing a smelting plant, 28 heavy equipment, 132 dump trucks and nine barges, but not physically harming or killing anyone  has provoked all kinds of reactions.

One good outcome: the incident spotlights the dire consequences of mining operations in the area since 1989 that should jolt the government, and the Supreme Court, into taking urgent positive action.

The policy of opening up the country to foreign mining firms needs rethinking, pronto.

Failure of the state security forces to stop the NPA attacks, which “dismayed” President Aquino, is a relatively minor issue. Beefing up security around the mines will not solve the problems that prompted the NPA attacks.

More compelling are the issues raised by the indigenous peoples and environmentalists against the mining companies  including the three that were raided: Taganito Mining Corp., Taganito HPAL Nickel Corp., and Platinum Group Metals Corp.

The companies are accused of: 1) degrading the environment, and 2) dispossessing the communities of their lands and water resources, ruining their cultural heritage, and withholding royalty fees due to them.

Raising the ante further, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, with whom the government is engaged in peace talks, vows to ban mining corporations “that destroy livelihood, the environment, and the aspirations for industrial development, and violate the rights and welfare of the indigenous peoples and the entire Filipino nation.” (The NDFP is pushing national industrialization, including mining policy, in the socio-economic reforms agenda at the negotiations scheduled in a few weeks in Oslo, Norway.)

Last May 30, the Tribal Coalition of Mindanao filed at the Supreme Court a petition for a “writ of kalikasan,” a novel judicial remedy initiated by then-Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno to aid people who are aggrieved by environmental degradation.

The petitioners urge the SC to issue a Temporary Environment Protection Order (stop mining operations) against TMC, PGMC, Oriental Synergy Mining Corp., Shenzhou Mining Group Corp., and Marcventures Mining Development Corporation. They charge these firms with “destroying and polluting (their) ancestral domain… by failing to provide proper siltation venues for their nickel mines, thereby irreversibly damaging marine resources, mangroves, corals and creating serious health risks… to the tribes and inhabitants of the provinces of Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur.”

As proof, the petitioners cite the UP Natural Science Research Institute finding that the water and soil samples taken from rivers and water systems near the mines contained nickel levels that far exceed the maximum acceptable level of nickel in drinking water set by the Department of Health and the Bureau of Food and Drug Administration.

The Supreme Court’s action on the urgent petition is anxiously awaited.

Leaders of the Mamanwa tribe in Claver, interviewed by the Philippine News Agency, affirm the “continuing injustice” their communities suffer because of the mining operations.

Datu Alfredo Olorico and Datu Totoy Bago lamented: “Our hope for peaceful living has gone. Our rivers that we used to fish and swim in and to irrigate our farms are gone… Our clean shores with crystal-clear waters… the forest, mountain springs that provided fresh potable water, all gone. What is left is harmful pollution and total environmental degradation.”

Overall chieftain Datu Heidi, holder of the Mamanwa ancestral domain claim, avers the mining firms have not paid P160 million in law-mandated royalty fees, representing one percent of their net income. From 1998-2010, the mining firms allegedly remitted only P43 million of the more than P200 million due to the communities.

Even the Internet provides evidence confirming the communities’ grievances.

Researcher-editor R. Luis Flores (user name @Liquid Druids) has blogged an incisively critical piece titled, “The Ugly Side of Surigao del Norte.” It encloses a Google Maps satellite image of Claver’s coastal mountain area with a strikingly reddish hue (which to me looks like a wide gaping wound). This is because, Flores points out, “the entire coastal mountain range is denuded of its forest cover.”

Having observed the area from a distance last September 22-24, Flores adds: “Claver supposedly has the largest iron mineral deposit in the world, and one can surmise that this denudation of the mountains is partly due to the mining activities that has gone on in the past years.”

He asks: Who should be called to account for allowing this to happen?

For good measure, Flores inserts a three-minute video on Barangay Taganito, taken from a moving vehicle last year and uploaded on YouTube by @taureanfate. It shows the denuded mountains, dump trucks running on the dusty road, and four ships (which load the nickel ore) docked at the pier. The note accompanying the video says: “The first time we passed this place, there were still a lot of ‘red mountains’ visible. The second time, almost everything was just flat and lifeless.”

In an update after the raids, Flores remarks: “While I’m no fan of the NPA (in fact I’m very much against it) I feel assured that there are at least people who are actively struggling against the environmental destruction, for whatever reason.”

Paging P-Noy: Take note and act fast.

Early morning of October 3. Three barricades are set up by the rebels. At the first barricade, Baoy Bridge, about 7 kilometers from the site, the road is blocked by a dump truck and gravel.

At the second barricade, about 5 km from the site, various vehicles block the road while at the last barricade, about 2 km from the site, the road is dumped with materials.

9:00 a.m.  About 200 to 300 guerrillas of the NPA led by Ka Edron (son of George Madlos aka Ka Oris) attack  the Taganito Mining Corp. (TMC) compound in Barangay (village) Taganito. They are on two dump trucks, wearing fatigue and police uniforms, and armed with M-16 and AK-47 rifles.

The rebels also swoop down on the compound of Platinum Group Metals Corp. (PGMC) in nearby Barangay Cagdianao. They have other comrades posted on the mountain ridges.

Outnumbered, the company guards of both companies abandon their posts.

At the TMC compound, the rebels raise the communist flag atop the company flagpole and take away personal and company laptops, and cell phones of employees.

They herd all the people in the compound in an open area and burn down equipment and facilities.

TMC general manager Jose Anievas asks the NPA to release all other employees on the TMC site. Some 5,000 to 6,000 workers start to walk out of the area toward the town proper of Claver.

Edron and leaders take Anievas and his staff to the THPAL construction site to look for the company’s “strike force” (Sumitomo has a 12-member reaction team with high-powered firearms) but failed to locate it as the Sumitomo security manager hid it earlier.

Another group of NPA leaders talk to Japanese engineers from two Japanese firms in their quarters. They are left unharmed.

The NPA conduct an “indoctrination” session among the employees outside the TMC gate.

11:00 a.m.  Governor Sol Matugas convenes a crisis committee and is joined by Jake Miranda (representative for the Mindanao Business Sector)

1:00 p.m.  TMC administrative officer Rogel Cabatuan gets back his cell phone and calls Miranda who in turn gives the phone to Matugas.

Matugas talks to  Edron.

Edron requests a  halt in the military operations. Matugas agrees on the condition that  Edron release  all “hostages” (about 3,000 workers, including 100 Japanese nationals).

Matugas  tells the  “crisis team,” composed of  Miranda,  Provincial Administrator Ramon Gotinga and  Ireneo Piong to proceed to TMC.

3:00 p.m.  The team arrives in Claver and catches up with advancing Army units. The military asks for a written request to halt military operations.

4:00 p.m. Matugas and the crisis team completes coordination with the police and military, which agree to halt an offensive at the first barricade line.

Upon hearing from the crisis team that the military operations have been stopped, the NPA takes with them   three persons—Anievas,  Cabauatan and the TMC chief of the security on their way out. The NPA and the TMC executives are on board seven vehicles and proceed to Barangay Cabugo, Claver, in the north.

Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo arrives in Surigao City and proceeds to the TMC compund.

The crisis team finally arrives at the TMC gate as the first government representatives to enter the area.

4:30 p.m. The rebels alight from the vehicles in Cabugo and release Anievas and two others who drive back to the TMC compound. There, Anievas and Robredo talk.

Efforts to put out the fires begin. Soon after, all fires were put under control.

The crisis team conducts an inventory of Japanese nationals in the area. Ramon Gotinga debriefs the Japanese.

7:45 p.m. All roads are cleared of traffic.  The crisis team finishes its preliminary information gathering.

Around 50 AFP/PNP personnel are still on foot patrol and clearing the road leading to TMC.

10:00 p.m.  AFP/PNP personnel finally arrive at TMC.

Source: Surigao del Norte local leaders

By Franklin A. Caliguid
Inquirer Mindanao

BUTUAN CITY—No one was killed in Monday’s raid by communist rebels on three mining facilities in Claver, Surigao del Norte province, according to a police official and a rebel spokesperson.

Superintendent Martin Gamba, spokesperson of the Caraga police, on Tuesday said that contrary to earlier reports,  all security guards at the companies of the Taganito Mining Corp. (TMC) that were raided, were safe and all accounted for.

“The three reported deaths were  not true when verified by the Claver town police,” Gamba told the Philippine Daily Inquirer by phone.

The supposed fatalities were initially reported by the Claver police chief, Senior Inspector Diomedes Cuadra, Claver Mayor Rosemarie Gokiangco and  Colonel Rodrigo Diapana, commander of the Army’s 402nd Infantry Brigade in Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur province.

No resistance from guards

Jorge Madlos, spokesperson of the communist-led National Democratic Front in Mindanao, said the reports on the deaths came as a surprise because the New People’s Army guerrillas did not harm any  company guard.

Madlos said in a radio interview yesterday that the guards offered no resistance.

“As far as reports from our field commanders  are concerned, no company guard was killed or hurt during the raid,” Madlos said.

Gamba said the rebels late Monday freed the two remaining TMC officials they took hostage during the raid. He identified them as TMC group manager Rogel Cabauatan and company chief security officer, Rene Ferenal.

Earlier Monday, TMC resident manager Jose Anievas and another TMC official were also set free by the rebels.