Filling materials for resort cranks tension up in CamSur village

SAGÑAY, Camarines Sur—An attempt to collect quarry fees for a haul of filling materials said to be intended for a resort owned by the family of a congressman here has turned this small town into a battlefield that drew policemen and soldiers and sent police dropping the name of one of the highest ranking members of President Aquino’s Cabinet.

On Jan. 2, a member of the provincial Sagip Kalikasan Task Force (SKTF) stopped a white Isuzu Elf truck with license plate RJV 183 that was carrying filling materials and was bound for Patitinan, a village where the family of Deputy Speaker Noli Fuentebella was alleged to have built a resort.

The SKTF member, Eli Bocacao Jr., was prevented, however, from impounding the truck and its haul for not paying quarry fees.

Soon after, the chief of Barangay Patitinan, Zayda Ordoñez Baron, was on the scene insisting that the truck driver, who was unidentified, be kept in her custody.

Members of the provincial police’s Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team also descended on the area. So did a truckload of soldiers.

Colleagues of Bocacao at

SKTF also came but when they arrived, the head of the SWAT team, Insp. Chester Pomar said police couldn’t let the SKTF members impound the truck on orders from Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo.

Patitinan, some 65 kilometers from Naga City, hogged headlines last year as this is the place where a controversial resort owned by Deputy Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella has been built. Gov. Luis Raymund Villafuerte filed a plunder case against Fuentebella for allegedly using public funds to build a road leading to the resort but the village’s officials have sided with Fuentebella in his dispute with the governor.

According to Bocacao in an affidavit, the truck driver told him the filling materials were for a covered court in Patitinan but couldn’t present a quarry permit.

Bocacao said he asked the driver to follow him to the SKTF office so that he could issue a seizure receipt and pay the corresponding penalty.

However, the truck driver instead drove to the house of village chief Baron. Baron came out and angrily told Bocacao she won’t let the driver out.

Bocacao said policemen from Sagñay, Army soldiers, a SWAT team from the provincial police office, former Sagñay mayor Roberto Briones, municipal administrator Marjon San Felipe and Vice Mayor Rachel Chavez all came to support Baron.

Bocacao said he and other

SKTF members found out later that there was no order from Robredo not to turn over the truck.

Baron said the truck is owned by a resident, Elmer Competente, who allowed its free use to help the barangay council collect earth deposited along the bend of the road to be used to level the village’s covered court.

She also admitted she called up Robredo who, she claimed, told her not to give in to the

SKTF because she was not quarrying but cleaning up the road.

Bocacao, however, quoted the driver in his affidavit as saying the truck was hired by Partido Construction, a firm reportedly owned by the family of Fuentebella.