HK BOYS: 5 FINANCIERS CONTROL ILLEGAL LOGGING IN QUEZON, AURORA
MANILA, December 6, 2004 (STAR) By Ding Cervantes - Five people, two of them known as the "Hong Kong Boys," have been financing illegal logging operations in Aurora and Quezon, a former Cabinet official said yesterday.
The illegal cutting of trees has been blamed for the landslides and flashfloods that killed more than a thousand people living at the foot of the Sierra Madre mountain range in the two provinces.
Former environment and natural resources secretary Heherson Alvarez told The STAR in an interview that the five financiers are Chinese-Filipinos. He identified one of them as a certain Felson Tan.
"They are all Filipino-Chinese," he said. "They provide mountain dwellers, such as Aetas, with chainsaws to cut trees which are eventually made to float as logs downstream through rivers."
Alvarez said that in September last year, 10 barangay chairmen in Real town, Quezon — one of the most devastated areas after typhoon "Winnie" hit the country last week — were alarmed by the illegal logging operations and reported the matter to Elisea Gozun, at the time the secretary of environment and natural resources.
"But there were no preventive measures taken," he said.
Alvarez said the so-called Hong Kong Boys have been operating in Umiray town in Aurora, where logs cut by mountain dwellers are made to float downstream via the Umiray and Agos rivers.
"Those who cut the trees were provided with chainsaws and paid per cubic meter (of what) they had cut," he said.
Quoting former Aurora governor Eddie Ong, Alvarez said the owners of logging firms Industrial Development Corp. and RCC in Aurora are allegedly close to Sen. Edgardo Angara.
"These two firms had the old license to just cut trees outside the requirements of the Integrated Forest Management (IFMA) under selective logging which requires loggers to replant, maintain nurseries, and engage in the planting of fruit trees and cash crops for livelihood," Alvarez added.
"It would take about three years before application for selective logging could be approved since it would have to pass scrutiny from the local level to the office of the secretary," he said.
Angara had earlier denied the involvement of his family in illegal logging operations in Aurora, whose governor, Bellaflor Angara-Castillo, is her sister while its congressman, Juan Pablo or "Sonny," is his son.
"The Angaras never coddled loggers nor took money from them. Throughout our entire careers in public service, we never took a cent from loggers and logging interests. What we are now, we owe everything to our professional careers and education," Castillo said in a statement to the media the other day.
Angara told The STAR said the same charges were leveled against his sister and son during the election campaign by their political opponents, the Ong family, "but we defeated them by a ratio of three to one."
Alvarez, at the same time, denied Angara’s allegations that he had issued six permits for logging operations in the Sierra Madre range in Aurora when he was secretary of environment and natural resources.
During his watch, he said he frequently ordered the raid of illegal logging operations in Aurora and Quezon.
Alvarez said the crackdown resulted in court cases, including one that led the court to ask him to pay the respondent P10 million for damages.
The case was later reversed on appeal to a higher court, he added.
Alvarez said the "lack of understanding of the policy" had led to an abuse of the selective logging ban, which he had espoused when he was heading the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
The tragedy that befell Aurora and Quezon could have been prevented had the IFMA been faithfully observed, he added.
Alvarez said the government has not supported environmental protection efforts, and that only about 5,000 forest rangers — whose "salaries are lower than those of janitors" — are employed by the DENR.
"Only one man is assigned to protect 25 hectares, and he doesn’t even have any vehicle," he said. "About 20 million Filipinos now live in remaining forests nationwide."
Alvarez said he had opposed the Senate-approved total logging ban bill, which was later junked at the House of Representatives in favor of selective logging.
Under the selective logging ban, "logging is not allowed in reservations, areas 1,000 feet above sea level, areas whose level is inclined about 80 percent, and national parks," he said, adding that
he supports President Arroyo’s order to stop logging throughout the country.
Alvarez was environment and natural resources secretary from 2001 to 2002 after serving as chairman of the Senate committee on environment for 10 years.
Comprehensive Program
At the House, Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay said the government’s heightened anti-illegal logging efforts should be part of a comprehensive program to prevent great loss of life and damage to property.
Pichay, who is vice-chairman of the Commission on Appointments, lauded President Arroyo’s review of all commercial logging operations and heightened drive against illegal logging to help prevent flooding caused by the denudation of mountains.
Pichay said the program to prevent the huge social costs from floods should also try to resolve the issues of slash-and-burn farming and the use of wood fuels by most Filipinos.
"While we cannot outlaw the strong rain, (we should use) our existing laws and have a coordinated effort to identify the danger areas and prevent our people from settling there, especially during the rainy season," he said.
Pichay said the Forest Reform Act of 1975 declares as inalienable lands with an 18-degree slope and prevents ownership of land within 20 meters on each side of rivers and streams with channels of at least a five-meter width.
"If we had strictly implemented these provisions, then a lot of the deaths and property damage in Dingalan, Infanta, Real and other areas could have been prevented," he said.
Pichay said the DENR and the Department of Agriculture must stamp out slash-and-burn farming and impose price controls on LPG to encourage more Filipinos to shift from wood to this locally produced fuel.
"Let us throw the book at illegal loggers and the local politicians and authorities who have allowed them flourish," he said.
"In the case of kaingeros who rely on this destructive practice to keep body and soul together, government has to give alternative livelihood opportunities, perhaps from a revitalized timber products sector or the use of new agriculture methods."
"It is high time that we confront these issues once and for all, if we are to protect our remaining forests and our people from natural disasters," he added.
A more pro-active approach by government to the perennial floods would prevent massive loss of lives and property and save enormous amounts now spent in relief, rescue and rehabilitation efforts, and spare the people from the anguish caused in the midst of these calamities, Pichay said. — With Paolo Romero
Reported by: Sol Jose Vanzi
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