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Saturday, December 11, 2004
Ellorin: On govt's hands
By Bencyrus G. Ellorin
Fastlanes
"KUNG dili makilatan dili manguros" is an old and tired --expression. But unless we learn from our mistakes and listen to the pleas of Mother Nature, that old and tired --expression would continue to ring bells.
As an advocate of total log ban and a veteran of several anti-logging barricades in this part of the country, I'm tempted to say "we told you so" after viewing the aftermath of the flashfloods in Luzon.
In an interview with the media lately, I emphasized that it is misleading to just blame the illegal loggers for the flashfloods and the forest denudation.
One only looks at the pictures of logs, hundred of thousands of logs floating in the sea to realize that the logging operation in the Quezon and Aurora area is of commercial scale.
I did some research and found out that there are at least 3 Timber License Agreement holders in the two provinces and several others holding a TLA in disguise called the Integrated Forest Management Agreement (IFMA).
Before I continue on with my tirade, let me share to you how TLA are converted into IFMA with a concrete example.
In 1995, the TLA of the Vicmar Development Corporation (VDC) expired.
(VDC is responsible, along with other TLA holders for the denudation of the critical watershed of Lake Lanao in the boundary of Cagayan de Oro, Lanao Sur and parts of Lanao Norte.).
A year later, it was awarded an IFMA by the DENR in ARMM. The only thing that changed was that it's logging permit is no longer called a TLA but IFMA, but operations-wise nothing has really changed.
Until now, it still operates and continues to wreck havoc in our critical watershed.
The operation of VICMAR has been the cause of several anti-logging human barricades in 1991,1997, 1999, 2000 and 2001 by the environmental group Task Force Macajalar.
I view with some disdain the pronouncements of government officials from Malacanang down to the rank-and-file about total log ban.
I had hoped it will not be another ningas-cogon thing that will be forgotten even before the flooded areas in Luzon are cleared of mud.
And I was not mistaken, while having my haircut yesterday, I chanced upon the headline of the Phil. Daily Inquirer saying that government will allow logging in private tree plantations. TREE PLANTATIONS MY FOOT!
To GMA and Mike Defensor tell that to the Marines! What tree plantations are you talking about? Do we really have them?
Now let me share how this so-called tree plantations thing is being used as a front of illegal logging.
In 1998-99 about 5,000 hectares of forest land was levelled in the Lanao Sur area, in the heart of the critical Lake Lanao watershed (in the Tagoloan II and Kapai areas) supposedly to pave way for a palm oil plantation.
Their permit to cut the trees is the Private Timber Land Permit (PLTP) issued by the ARMM). We barricaded against this.
For this, the loggers hired goons to go after me and some leaders of the TFM. Only in the Philippines that you have a tree plantation of prime dipterocarp wood like Lauan. Dipterocarp species naturally occur in natural forests and are not planted. The DENR cannot deny this farce because they have and I believe continuing to give PLTPs
For exposing this scam, in 1999, the illegal loggers have used another scheme.
This time using the Community-based Forest Management Agreement (CBFMA) and the so-called Resource Use Permit to log our forest in commercial scale. That was why, in 1999 - 2000 we here in Cagayan de Oro again barricaded the logging trucks.
So with our allies in Wao, Lanao del Sur and Bukidnon. It was a very tense and life threatening.
Imagine a CBFMA holder in Wao,Lanao del Sur given a permit to cut 30,000 cubic meters of logs?
When a ground inventory was made, 16,000 logs were found in the logging areas in Wao and Bumbaran. This is also being practiced in the Caraga Region.
This is why I don't believe in the grandstanding of GMA and Mike Defensor.
With the statement that they will allow logging in private plantations, the truth is out that their pronouncements are all grandstanding. With this, I'm worried that it will still be business as usual.
And even before we finish mourning for the lost souls due to the logging induced floods and landslides, we better prepare for another disaster.
I hope this time, our voice, the voices of the advocates for total log ban will not just be voices in the wilderness.
And as it is business as usual in our logging industry, we shall continue with our fight to stop the bleeding of the forest against the loggers and against government.
When a hand grenade was thrown in our anti-logging barricade infront of the Manresa compound of Xavier University in July 6, 2000, we asked ourselves whether to continue staking our lives for the forest.
I told myself and my fellow leaders in the TFM that we should continue, "because the grenade did not explode there is a message that we should continue on with the fight." Explosives experts up to now are baffled why the striker of the hand grenade missed the primer by about two millimeters because it was wedged in between two bamboo poles.
Unless government gets serious in changing our logging policy, I dare say that the blood of the victims of calamities caused by logging are in the hands of the people in Malacanang, the DENR, Congress and the loggers.
While it is business as usual for the logging industry, it would be better for us to sing Great Pretender and dedicate it to GMA, Mike Defensor and the DENR, our senators and congressmen for they are not really doing any benefit to the environment.
They are, save for a few, the problem of the environment.
(The writer is a freelance journalists and an environmental campaigner. He works as a community organizer and does voluntary work as the campaigns coordinator and spokesperson of the environmental coalition, the Task Force Macajalar based in Cagayan de Oro)
(December 11, 2004 issue)
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