Tanggol Kalikasan To File Complaint – Petition

GMA asked to probe DENR’s P129M project
By Jason B. Neola

PILI, Camarines Sur --- A petition is being prepared to ask President Arroyo to look into and temporarily shelve the alleged anomalous implementation of the P129 million watershed agro-forestry project of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Mt. Isarog.

Jim Monge, community coordinator of the Iriga-based Tanggol Kalikasan, a pro-environment Non-Government Organization, said the move is necessary “so that the public will see the real picture of what is really happening” in the implementation of the multimillion reforestation project.

Monge also deplored the results of the reforestation projects in the region, saying that since the early 90s, Bicol has only 6 to 7 percent forested area left.

The call for investigation came after Pili Mayor Alexis D. San Luis, who considers Tanggol Kalikasan as partner in the enforcement of forestry laws, urged the NGO to come up with a complaint-petition enumerating the reported violations by the DENR in the implementation of reforestation projects in his municipality.

In an interview, San Luis said that the local government unit is seriously considering the sending of complaint-petition to the DENR “in order for the agency to discuss and properly resolve” the alleged irregularities in the implementation of the project.

Ensuring that their efforts will not go in vain, Roy Nelson Layosa, also of Tanggol Kalikasan, said they are planning to officially send the complaint-petition to President Arroyo who is the “better person to call for an investigation” and not any of the DENR personnel.

Among the DENR’s alleged questionable dealings in the implementation of the projects of which the NGO wanted investigated by Arroyo-designated independent probe body:

•The actual organizational set-up, nature and the present status of the private contractors who were awarded with project contracts.

•The exact locations and specific zones of the agro-forestry/reforestation projects since Mt. Isarog had been divided into several zones such as restoration zones, strict protection zones and multiple use zones.

•The actual project cost of each contract.

•The results of biddings conducted for every project.

•How much mobilization funds have already been released for a specific project.

•Original copies of the memorandum of agreement (memo-ag) entered into and by the DENR and the contracting parties for each project.

•The kinds of trees to be planted in the area should be indigenous and not the ones being imported from other countries. This, in order to ensure that they will survive in the area.

•The actual status/condition of each project at present.

•Valid proof or document showing that none among the community-based organizations in the project site has the capability or has manifested their willingness and interest to undertake the project.

•Valid proof or document that each project has gone through proper deliberations/discussions with the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) in the area.

Layosa said they would also inform President Arroyo about the alleged wanton violations by the DENR of the provisions contained in the National Integrated Protected Areas Systems Act of 1992 (NIPAS Act).

The PAMB

The Mt. Isarog Protected Area Management Board was created to protect the mountain and its forest cover with the following members: representatives of the 23 barangays situated at the foot of Mt. Isarog, 7 LGUs (six municipalities, 1 city), and three representatives from non-government organizations/local community organizations, and if necessary, one representative from other departments or national government agencies involved in protected area management.

The Board shall, by a majority vote, decide the allocations for budget, approve proposals for funding, and decide matters relating to planning, peripheral protection and general administration of the area in accordance with the general management strategy.

The members of the Board shall serve for a term of five years without compensation, except for actual and necessary traveling and subsistence expenses incurred in the performance of their duties. They will be appointed by the Secretary of the DENR.

Pili experience

San Luis, a DENR employee for over 15 years before he became the town’s chief executive officer, said the municipal government has been constantly monitoring operations and activities happening within Mt. Isarog. He said his municipality keeps a standing co-management agreement with the DENR wherein the local government has been undertaking and maintaining a reforestation project on the expanse of 161 ha in Sitio Boncao, Barangay Curry.

Layosa said this watershed reforestation project by the municipality should be emulated by other local government units which possess corporate character to prevent the DENR from awarding project contracts to other entities that are not community-based.

San Luis said the non-inclusion of community-based organizations in the reforestation projects is a violation of the PAMB’s Resolution No. 1 which favors the awarding of project contracts to community-based organizations. He said it is essential and significant to tap the services of community-based organizations in reforestation projects to ensure satisfactory forest protection.

150-ha project

A female NGO worker who spoke on condition of anonymity assailed DENR’s non-inclusion of a group of residents in its reforestation project in Brgy. Sto. Niño, Ocampo, Camarines Sur. She said the government agency has been continuously ignoring their pleas to participate in the reforestation program.

“Dapat pagmakulgan asin tabangan kan DENR an mga residentes sa paagi nin pagtao sainda nin alternatibong hanapbuhay sa mismong lugar na saindang pigeestaran,” she said.

The Naga City-based NGO personnel said they could not understand why the reforestation projects intended in the area were awarded to a Ragay-based NGO in violation of PAMB’s resolution.

She said the head of the contracting Ragay-based NGO’s is a brother of a former DENR employee who worked in the agency for almost 39 years.

The source further discovered that one of the DENR’s projects in the area needs at least 150 hectares when in fact the barangay’s actual protected area was only a little more than 52 hectares.