Former Napocor execs question charges, ask court to put off arrest warrants

MANILA, Philippines—Former Napocor president Cyril del Callar and project manager Romualdo Consigna have asked the Sandiganbayan to allow them to contest criminal charges filed against them as a result of the cutting of mangrove trees in Puerto Princesa in 2008.

The former Napocor officials also asked the anti-graft court to defer the issuance of warrants for their arrest in the meantime.

Del Callar and Consigna were accused of allowing the cutting of 12,000 square meters of mangroves in Barangay Lucban, Puerto Princesa to pave the way for the installation of Napocor transmission lines and towers.

This was a violation of the Philippine Fisheries Code, which penalizes the conversion of mangroves, according to the Office of the Ombudsman. The original complaint was filed by the Puerto Princesa government.

In their motion for reconsideration or reinvestigation, the former Napocor officials said the cutting of the mangroves was done for a government infrastructure project, which is for a public purpose. Because of this, they could not be held criminally liable.

They said that even if Napocor was granted a right of way, it sought the approval of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources before embarking on the project.

According to them, under a memorandum of agreement, the DENR gave Napocor blanket authority with respect to the Puerto Princesa-Roxas transmission line, and a permit to cut any vegetation or trees inside or adjacent to the transmission line right of way where and when necessary. This was to ensure that there would be no tripping or outages because of the trees.

The DENR gave the Napocor a special land use permit road right of way and a special timber cutting permit, with the latter authorizing Napocor to cut 6,056 trees .

“It should be noted that the special permit was issued without any objection on the part of the DENR despite the fact that the project will traverse the mangrove area; neither was there any order from the DENR that there must be re-routing of the Transmission Line as to avoid the mangrove areas,” they said.

The Palawan Council for Sustainable Development also gave Napocor a cutting permit along the areas that the project would pass through, they added.

“The issuance of the permits is a recognition on the part of these government agencies that the cutting of trees is necessary to carry out the transmission line project,” they said.

Napocor and the DENR also agreed to conduct forestry activities in the cutting area, with environment officials tasked with marking and inspecting the timber to be cut. Forest guards were even sent to the area.

But Napocor officials said that while the project was ongoing, it received a letter from the DENR instructing Napocor to avoid trimming the mangrove area.

But by then, Napocor’s contractor had already trimmed the mangrove trees that would affect the transmission line. These were later transported to the DENR compound in the province.

The Napocor officials said the mangroves were only pruned, and four meters of the trunk from the ground were left to allow the trees to regenerate naturally. These areas traversed by the transmission lines were not converted to any other purpose and remain mangrove areas, they added.

Del Callar and Consigna also said that before the Office of the Ombudsman ordered the filing of charges against them, Napocor and the Puerto Princesa government entered into a compromise in 2009 in which  Napocor was allowed to prune the remaining mangrove trees in the area.

The  agreement, they said, was recognition by the Puerto Princesa government that the cutting of the mangroves was necessary for the power project. Had the Office of the Ombudsman known  this, it would have dismissed the case against them, they added.

“The execution of the compromise agreement… is therefore a supervening event that will warrant a reinvestigation of the case,” they said.