The Palawan Report

Got word today that the Court of Appeals has reversed the ruling issued in January by RTC Judge Chito Merigillano suspending the operations of Citinikel in Narra, Southern Palawan.

The appeals court imposed an injunction against the Provincial Mining and Regulatory Board (PMRB) from suspending Citinikel which it had sued for illegal quarrying of sand and gravel.

This case is interesting to follow because Governor Joel T. Reyes blames Citinikel and its mother company, the publicly listed Oriental Peninsula Resources, as being behind the graft case filed by an anonymous NGO group against Reyes now pending in the Sandiganbayan.

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By Alex Villanueva
Philippine News Agency

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) filed murder charges on Friday against the police chief of Puerto Princesa City and two others for “covering-up” the March 28 killing of a theft suspect.

Deputy Director for Regional Operations Service lawyer Reynaldo Esmeralda said the NBI–Puerto Princesa District Office filed murder charges against Supt. Enrique G. Ancheta, chief of police of Puerto Princesa police station with the Puerto Princesa Prosecution’s Office.

His companions Police Officer 3 Ronnel Cacal and Tony Laab, were also charged for being accessory to the crime.

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By Redempto Anda
Inquirer Southern Luzon Bureau
First Posted 03:41:00 05/07/2008

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY – An irate Mayor Edward Hagedorn on Tuesday ordered a stop to the National Power Corp. (Napocor) project in the coastal area of Barangay Bacungan Lucbuan, north of the city, after Napocor workers cut down centuries-old mangrove trees to install backbone transmission lines.

A Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) official told the Inquirer that they had so far counted nearly 200 mangrove trees, mostly old-growth, that were destroyed.

Hagedorn sent an enforcement team to the area on Tuesday and confiscated the cut mangroves and a chainsaw used by the workers.

“What they have done is set back our efforts to protect these important resources. I want to make sure someone is held accountable for this,” Hagedorn said.

Romualdo Consigna of the local Napocor office told the Inquirer over the phone that they had a “special permit to cut” issued by the DENR.

Consigna said the Napocor obtained the permit last year for the backbone transmission project. The permit required Napocor to replant 25,000 saplings of mangroves and nonmangrove species.

He said Napocor had to cut down the trees to comply with the required ground clearance for transmission lines.

Elmer Maquitoque of the local DENR office, however, said the special tree-cutting permit that the Napocor presented during a site investigation did not allow the power firm to cut the mangroves.

“They (Napocor) have a tree-cutting permit but only for naturally growing trees. But they have instead cleared an entire area of old growth mangroves,” Maquitoque said.

Local radio station manager Louie Larozza, who accompanied the investigating team, said the area cleared by Napocor was composed of mostly old-growth mangroves, including stands of over 36 feet in diameter.

Hagedorn said he had asked environmental lawyer Antonio Oposa to file a case against Napocor for violating a Palawan law that protected old-growth mangrove forests.

In 1981, a presidential decree issued by the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos declared Palawan a Mangrove Forest Reserve, prohibiting the destruction of mangroves.

By Redempto Anda
Inquirer Southern Luzon Bureau
First Posted 16:51:00 05/06/2008

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Philippines — Local officials of Palawan have broken ranks with Malacañang over the latter’s preference for treating the Kalayaan islands as outside the country’s baselines.

The Palawan officials say areas of the disputed islands occupied by China and Vietnam, particularly Mischief Reef, should be clearly marked as within the national territory in the baselines bill pending in the House of Representatives.

“Why are we giving up Mischief? That is a weakening of our position over the entire island group which comprises the municipality of Kalayaan. I can’t really understand what the executive department is up to,” Northern Palawan Representative Antonio Alvarez told reporters in Palawan Tuesday.

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By Redempto Anda
Palawan Sun Feature
Date Published : April 3, 2008

Negotiations to establish Palawan’s initial venture on jatropha plantation and biofuels development involving a Philippine company and a major Spanish group, Bionor Transformacion, has hit a snag over financial arrangements.

An official of the Palawan Biodiesel Development Corporation (PBDC) told the Palawan Sun they have rejected a buy-in offer of the Spanish group Bionor Transformacion, because of perceived disadvantage.

PBDC, a company that has developed reportedly the country’s most successful variety of jatropha that is now being endorsed by PNOC, said they have rejected Bionor’s financial offer.

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At the first provincial assembly of the Sangguniang Kabataan today, I could not help but notice that most of the family names of these youth leaders were familiar names. It turned out later in a huddle with these young kids that a lot of them were indeed relatives of incumbent officials from their respective places.

The provincial SK federation chair, a young lady from Bataraza, agreed with my observation that over 70 percent of them, just judging from the name tags that I saw, are relatives of incumbent local officials in the province. So what does this mean? I thought it would be interesting to stir some discussion about this, noting that the SK has received so much flak as the breeding group of future trapos and corrupt public officials. I asked them what they will do when called to take a position on an issue. Will they will defer to their benefactors, mentors or relatives, or will they cast their votes based on their personal convictions?

Most of the answers were predictable and on the safe side. It seems though that the idealism characteristic of the youth flows in their collective vein, especially when they are together and speaking with one voice. The sad reality is when they are made to swim in the high seas of politics along with their accomplished elders, they are often relegated to the sidelines if not swept by the strong currents of political interests.

Maybe Senator Pimentel was right in calling for the abolition of the SK. Or maybe it should be completely overhauled so that leaders are chosen not necessarily by their affiliation but by their leadership abilities. Maybe they should not be elected, as elections are really mostly a sham in these parts. Maybe they should be chosen in a competitive process of selection where leadership qualities will be the norm.

Maybe they should not be given the same pork barrel privileges that are received by their elected peers in the local legislative bodies where they sit. This only creates temptations for them to do as the adults do. Governor JTR who was seated beside me told me of a complaint by his fellow governor from another place that their SK federation chair who sits in the provincial board has learned to lobby for certain contractors bidding for public works projects.

Of the several SK leaders that I’ve observed the past few years, I wasn’t impressed at all. That should explain my overarching cynicism.

It will be tricky to do a full report on the illegal mangrove bark trade for two reasons. One is the difficulty of getting around the farthest ends of Southern Palawan, in Rizal and Bataraza, where road conditions and hostile physical environment (e.g. high incidence of malaria) are a main factor in planning a trip. The other is the politics of the illegal tanbarking trade. I’m looking of doing a coverage before summer ends.

Last week, a seven-old boy from Ransang, Rizal was killed in a crocodile attack, prompting renewed debates on the continued proliferation of tanbarking. Southern Palawan is the only place in the country where one can find the large species of mangroves, ceriops tangal, in a forestal state. This species seems to be particularly suited to tanbarking because of its characteristic thick bark.

The common knowledge is that local politicians are themselves involved in the illegal bark trade, which perhaps explains why it has been so difficult to stop. Atty. Winston Gonzales, Congressman Mitra’s chief of staff, explained to me last week that they had tried to institutionalize the policy of burning apprehended tanbark when Mitra was chair of the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development. This policy, however, seems to have waned and the practice of bidding out these apprehended contraband has lately become the norm. In these bidding processes conducted by the DENR, Gonzales observed that usually the illegal loggers themselves win the bidding.

By Redempto Anda
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:06:00 04/30/2008

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY – The manager of the exclusive island resort of Amanpulo, who was linked to a murder coverup case filed by the Philippine National Police, has left the country for good, according to investigators working on the case.

Portuguese Miguel Guedes de Sousa, who was charged with eight others in the alleged coverup of the suspected murder of construction worker Rodolfo Abamo in January, left the country on April 12 after police filed the case at the provincial prosecutors’ office.

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By Redempto Anda
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 17:22:00 04/29/2008

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Philippines — Two abandoned foreign fishing vessels that sank off the city pier apparently due to a lack of maintenance yielded thousands of liters of toxic chemicals used in illegal fishing, city officials disclosed Tuesday.

Personnel of the Bantay Dagat, the environmental enforcement arm of the city government, have so far recovered from the shallow seabed, some 10 to 15 feet from the surface, over 3,000 bottles of toxic chemicals believed to be formalin and sodium cyanide.

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By Alex Villanueva
Philippine News Agency

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is expected to visit the province of Palawan where she will enjoy the adventure at the World Heritage Site-Tubbataha Reef National Marine Park (TRNMP) in the town of Cagayancillo off Sulu Sea.

This was announced by Mayor Edward Hagedorn, who added that President Arroyo is set to dive in the 96,000-hectare Tubbataha, one of the best dive sites in the world.

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