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Friday, April 14, 2006
Osmeña blames DENR, NGO for tension in upland Cebu City
CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña challenged the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and a non-government organization (NGO) to address the “dangerous” situation in Barangay Tabunan, saying the two offices are to blame for the unrest there.
The alleged maltreatment of farmers by some policemen in Tabunan angered the mayor, but he won’t take any action against the parties involved yet, he said.
An irate Osmeña blamed DENR and the University of San Carlos Water Resource Center (WRC) for the conflict between retired police general Tiburcio Fusilero and the farmers occupying the forestland the DENR left in Fusilero’s care.
The mayor is cautious, though, and said all the complaints have to be documented first. Osmeña did not take sides, saying both Fusilero and the farmers have a point.
He also does not want to send policemen to secure the area, since the police sent there earlier were already “kicked out,” allegedly by Fusilero’s men.
Osmeña clarified he is not washing his hands of the issue, but it is DENR and WRC that should solve the problem, he said.
“I feel very angry that it has come down to this... we now have a dangerous situation,” he said.
The mayor criticized the position of the University of San Carlos and the Cebu Archdiocese on the watershed issue, that watershed areas in the mountain barangays should not be opened for development.
“This is the same position they have been supporting and now it’s chaos, as if everybody will just disappear...In the name of water, people will get hurt and you know, the irony of it all is that we don’t get water from the watershed,” he added.
Osmeña told the farmers who complained to him that he will try to cancel the agreement that allows Fusilero to work on environmental projects in Tabunan, but he found out he cannot do so since it was DENR that gave the general authority.
Warning
At least 21 farmers also complained before the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) that Fusilero’s men harassed them when they refused to leave the forestland in Tabunan.
Fusilero is working on a reforestation project in the area, which is covered by a memorandum of agreement between him and the DENR.
Osmeña said that 15 years ago, he warned DENR and the farmers about the possible problems that may arise, but DENR entered into the agreement with Fusilero anyway.
“Now we have this situation. But both sides have a point, former barangay captain Vicente Padayao has his people, but so does Fusilero, so now it is creating the unrest that we have been avoiding,” the mayor lamented. LCR
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (April 13, 2006 issue)
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