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Monday, April 11, 2005
GMA 7's 'I-Witness' to air Sudecor issue
By Ben Serrano
* Segment reporters believe firm committed violations
* However Sudecor denies charges, files own complaint against "barricaders"
BUTUAN CITY -- A documentary film about the Puyat-owned Surigao Development Corp.'s (Sudecor) logging operations that is subject of complaint by the indigenous people in 11 communities in the towns of Lanuza, Carmen and Cantilan, all in Surigao del Sur is scheduled to be shown Monday at GMA 7's "I-Witness" program.
Department of Environment and Natural Resources officials of the Caraga Region in their four-page decision cleared the Puyat firm from all charges aired by the Mananwa and the Manobo tribesmen in their complaint letters to the agency last March 17, 2005.
A crew of documentary television show I-Witness, that is shown every Monday evening after newscast "Saksi", arrived in Barangay Agsam, Lanuza, Surigao del Sur last Holy Wednesday to do a documentary film on the issue.
The television crew headed by TV newscaster Jay Taruc of I-Witness told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro they were finally allowed to enter the concession area after DENR Secretary Michael Defensor intervened and requested the logging company officials in Manila.
"After two hours of waiting and negotiating, we were finally allowed by the company guards to enter the area where the complaining Mamanwa and Manobo tribesmen were residing since time immemorial," Taruc said.
Taruc said that had it not been on the call of the DENR Secretary to Undersecretary Ramon Paje who arranged the entry of the GMA-7's TV crew with Sudecor officials their trip to Surigao del Sur could have been a failure.
Taruc said they traveled all the way to Surigao del Sur--an almost eight hour ride following a more than one hour plane ride from Manila to Caraga Region's capital, Butuan City--to investigate the complaints of lumad dwellers on alleged destructive logging operations in their ancestral homes.
In an interview, the television host told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro he personally believed Sudecor violated provisions of the Timber License Agreement (TLA) granted by the government through the DENR to the logging firm.
Initial findings of the fact-finding team showed alleged violations of the logging firm.
Environmentalist groups are now preparing legal remedies, among them a complaint against Sudecor for its alleged violations of TLA provisions and other environmental laws on forest protection.
Unfazed Sudecor officials have filed criminal complaint before local Prosecutor's Office in Cantilan, Surigao del Sur against lumads, environmentalist groups, some local government officials and church leaders.
The groups allegedly held a barricade against logging trucks of the logging firm last March 7 to March 9.
Sudecor claimed they paid government penalties as provided by the TLA on alleged destruction caused by their logging operations, saying such "destruction" cannot be avoided in the course of cutting trees within their logging concession.
(April 11, 2005 issue)
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