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Atienza dared to suspend Enrile’s logging operations in Samar

The militant fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Monday urged Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) secretary Joselito Atienza to suspend if not permanently stop the logging operations of San Jose Timber Corp.- a logging firm reportedly owned by Senator Juan Ponce Enrile.

Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said Secretary Atienza should not go on selective mode by suspending only the logging operations of Basey Wood Industries (Baswood). He said the DENR chief should also stop the Enrile firm from resuming its operations in the island.

“If he is really concern with climate change and other environmental disasters huge logging operations may cause to the environment and to the people, Secretary Atienza should also tell Mr. Enrile to quit from logging the forest areas of Samar,” the militant leader said.

The Pamalakaya leader was referring to the 95, 770 hectares of forest lands in Samar Island operated by San Jose Timber Corp. In August 2005, then Environment Secretary Michael Defensor allowed San Jose Timber to resume its operation in 95,770 hectares of forest lands in Samar Island and extended its logging permit by 16 years.

Quickly, the Catholic Church also opposed San Jose Timber’s planned resumption of operation, saying that circumstances leading to the lifting of the logging moratorium in Samar “had not been transparent and the processed flawed” and that the law was “applied without due consideration for the poor to please the powerful.”

Hicap said it seems Senator Enrile has become the untouchable logging king in Samar after he joined the Macapagal-Arroyo camp and has allowed himself to become Malacañang’s newest attack dog in the Senate, working as workaholic political defender of President Arroyo, playing the spoiler’s role in many of the Senate’s investigation on controversial issues like the Hello Garci tape scandal and the National Broadband Network scam.

“Is this some kind of an exchange deal? How come Secretary Atienza cannot stop Enrile’s logging operations in the protected forest park?

President Arroyo had declared on Aug.13, 2003 the 333, 300 hectare as Samar Island Natural Park, and therefore a protected area from logging interest groups. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 06:03 | link | comments |

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