Antique relocation questioned

PANDAN, Antique—The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has raised questions on the relocation of hundreds of residents of Semirara Island in Antique province by the municipal government of Caluya.

In a forum on the impact of coal mining on Antique held here, investigators of the CHR Western Visayas office said there were possible irregularities in the local government’s transfer of residents of Sitio Sabang in Barangay Tinogboc to Sitio Poocan in the same village.

Investigator Edgar Luis said it appeared that the planned relocation was being done without “proper and meaningful consultation” with hundreds of residents who would be displaced.

The government of Caluya plans to transfer more than 100 families to a 5-hectare relocation site in Poocan where new houses will be constructed by the town and Semirara Mining Corp. (SMC).

Semirara Island hosts SMC, which is operated by David M. Consunji Inc. and is one of Asia’s biggest coal mines.

Semirara is one of the nine islands comprising Caluya at the northern end of Panay Island.

Caluya Mayor Genevive Lim-Reyes has said  Sabang residents would have to be transferred to Poocan because the land they were occupying in Sabang had been returned to the individual who donated it.

The residents raised suspicion that the vacated area would be used by SMC. This has not been confirmed nor denied by the local government.

The municipal government is claiming ownership of the property in Poocan, which Reyes earlier said included 3 ha donated by the Janairo family and another 2 ha bought by the town from the same family.

But a group of Poocan residents, led by the farmers group Sabang-Poocan Farmers, Fishermen Association Inc., is opposing the relocation and the proposed relocation site, which they claimed would include their farmlands.

CHR lawyer Jonnie Dabuco also said  a deed of donation could not  be “simply exchanged” for another lot even with the same donor and recipient.

“It should undergo a defined legal process,” Dabuco told the Inquirer.

Municipal legal officer Voltaire Gumban said the relocation of residents and the building of houses on the relocation site were proceeding because there was no legal impediment to the project. He denied that there were irregularities in the reversion of the donation.

Luis, of the CHR, said their findings had been forwarded to the legal department of the CHR national office to determine any liabilities of the local government.

The forum, jointly organized by Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka, Bantay Kita, the  CHR and the British Embassy in Manila, was attended by about 50 residents of Caluya, environmental advocates and representatives of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of Energy.

Organizers said they sent and followed up invitations to Lim, SMC and Antique Gov. Exequiel Javier but they did not attend nor send representatives.