CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – An information caravan in the nine villages of Dinalungan, Aurora, started to gather support on Monday for the protest against the approval by Environment Secretary Lito Atienza of a five-year logging plan by a firm in the province.
Fr. Ceferino Valenzuela, the town’s parish priest, said the caravan mounted by the Concerned Citizens of Dinalungan started at 8 a.m., holding short programs in every village it passed.
The 200 participants were expected to reach the logging areas of Industries Development Corp. (IDC) in Barangays Ditawini and Abuleg in Dinalungan, Dinadiawan in Dipaculao town, and at the Aurora-Quirino boundary before dusk.
IDC vice president Michael Ong and general manager Isaias Noveras have not replied to the Inquirer’s calls and text messages since Sunday seeking reactions to the protest.
Romulo Palma, IDC chief security officer, promised to alert Noveras on the request for interview. Noveras has yet to call on Monday.
Registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1961, IDC holds two Integrated Forest Management Agreements (Ifma). Ifma No. 14 covers 9,466 hectares and Ifma No. 2001-06 spans 48,877 hectares in Dinalungan, Casiguran and Dilasag.
The areas covered by the two Ifma are more than half of the 110,228 hectares of forests in the three towns, documents showed.
Of the nine companies that have obtained Ifma for 150,774 hectares in Aurora, IDC manages a large portion of Aurora’s forest.
Following the deadly landslides in the province in November and December 2004, former Environment Secretary Michael Defensor allowed IDC to harvest logs on Aug. 17, 2005, after a review team found its performance “satisfactory.”
Valenzuela said he and the Concerned Citizens of Dinalungan had opposed legal and illegal logging because the town had been suffering from frequent floods and landslides since 1998.
The calamities have killed at least five people and buried or washed out about 50 houses, according to Mayor Tito Tubigan in a phone interview on Sunday.
Tubigan said he met Atienza on April 17 to appeal for a review of the secretary’s approval on the renewal of the operation plan over the 48,877-hectare area.
“I opposed it because after consultations with various sectors, the overwhelming sentiments of my constituents is that they do not want legal or illegal logging because those degrade our natural environment,” he said.
Tubigan said Noveras did not inform him about the plan to renew the operation plan. “All that [Noveras] showed me were applications for mayor’s permit and business permit. I refused both,” he said.
“We were deprived of our right to be consulted,” Tubigan said.
He said the municipal council also opposed the renewal of the operation plan.
Tubigan said Atienza promised a review.
The environment secretary confirmed that illegal logging had resumed in Dingalan, Aurora in reaction to reports, which quoted a leader of Task Force Sierra Madre.
“I have personally confirmed the report from my independent sources in the area and I have found that it has sufficient basis,” Atienza said in a statement.
He said he ordered the immediate relief of Meliton Vicente Jr., the community environment and natural resources officer (Cenro) in Dingalan. Vicente was replaced by Joselito Blanco, former Cenro of Cabanatuan City.
“Like as I always told our officials, Vicente will not only be relieved of his duties but we will also make him answerable for all these charges of illegal logging in his area of responsibility,” Atienza said.
He said the resumption of illegal logging in Dingalan “must be stopped at all costs.”
Atienza said a team of legal and law enforcement agents from the DENR would be sent to Dingalan and other areas in Central Luzon to gather more information about illegal logging activities.
“To allow illegal logging to continue is like begging for a catastrophe with epic proportions to happen,” he said. Reports from Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon; and Jocelyn Uy, in Manila
