DENR mystery: Sec. Paje disowning listed USec

Is one Jose Ferrer usurping the position of Undersecretary of Environment and Natural Resources, as Sec. Ramon Paje avers? Or is Paje ignorant of his department’s table of organization?

A news report last Wednesday, Oct. 2, quoted Paje as saying there no longer is a “USec Ferrer” in the Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). Supposedly once a classmate of President Noynoy Aquino, Ferrer was an undersecretary of ex-President Gloria Arroyo. But Paje said his recommendation to Malacañang to extend Ferrer’s tenure was turned down in July 2010.

A check with the DENR website, however, showed an “Atty. Jose N. Ferrer Jr.” listed as Undersecretary. Ferrer even had phone numbers: (02) 9200945 and 9296626, local 2143. Also listed as USecs are: Atty. Analiza R. Teh, Atty. Ernesto D. Adobo Jr. (for field operations), Atty. Demetrio L. Ignacio Jr. (for policy and planning), and Manuel D. Gerochi (for staff bureaus and project management).

More than that, Ferrer represented the DENR in last weekend’s mining summit in Surigao City. There was even another news report quoting “Undersecretary Ferrer.” Paje said he had sent Dir. Leo Jasareno, Mines and Geosciences Bureau, to that “Second Caraga Mining Community Symposium.” The organizers reportedly told Jasareno there already was a higher-ranking attendee from the DENR. Meaning, they had accepted Ferrer’s credentials.

Paje is disowning Ferrer out of pique, one of the undersecretaries confided. Since the start of the year, murmurs have been swirling at the DENR that Ferrer was to replace Paje soon. The latter was quoted in the Wednesday report as denying that he was about to be sacked.

Ferrer used to be defense undersecretary under Angelo Reyes (deceased). He joined Reyes when Arroyo moved the latter to the DENR, and stayed there when Reyes was moved anew to the energy ministry.

Insiders said that feuding Malacañang blocs back Paje and Ferrer. Paje claimed to be in possession of a letter from Deputy Executive Sec. Ronaldo Geron, dated Aug. 1, 2011, certifying that Ferrer no longer is with the DENR. Earlier this week Deputy Presidential Spokesman Abigail Valte told reporters she had not heard of plans to replace Paje. Valte is under Chief Spokesman Edwin Lacierda, also spokesman of the ruling but fractious Liberal Party.

Intriguingly, Ferrer also is listed as DENR undersecretary in the directory of the Presidential Communications Operations Office, under Press Sec. Herminio Coloma.

Yesterday, “concerned employees of the DENR” denounced Paje for badmouthing Ferrer, whom they identified as undersecretary. The unsigned group claimed that Paje was singling out Ferrer for refusing to be part, unlike him and the other undersecretaries, of the inner circle of erstwhile secretary Joselito Atienza. Now a party-list congressman, Atienza was once president of the LP.

The group also said Paje is sore with Ferrer for digging up the pork-barrel scam of the DENR’s Philippine Forest Corp. Chaired by Paje, PhilForest reportedly served as conduit for the plunder of P471 million in congressional pork barrel. It is supposedly for this anomaly that Aquino is contemplating to sack him.

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Other issues put to question Paje competence and integrity.

Townsfolk of Masinloc, Zambales, are preparing to have him cited for contempt of Supreme Court directives. This is for disobeying for the last three months the SC’s order to stop the pollutive nickel mining in their seaside town and adjacent Sta. Cruz and Infanta (Pangasinan). Too, for failure to report honestly to the SC what he has done about it.

Civic leaders of the three towns have been decrying the denudation of forests, leveling of mountains, and muddying of rivers and seas. Nickel ore excavated by large mining firms, disguised as “small scale,” is sent to China for processing. China fashions the metal into weaponry and surveillance systems. Chinese naval vessels recently invaded the Scarborough Shoal, traditional fishing grounds of Masinloc. Meanwhile, townsfolk are suffering from high rates of respiratory and excretory diseases, due to the forest and watershed loss, dust and mud from the excavations, and exhaust from thousands of dump trucks.

On petition of the townsfolk, the SC in July granted a temporary environment protection order. Paje, as DENR chief, was tasked to stop the destruction. The SC also ordered him to justify his legal opinion, as a non-lawyer, allowing nickel extraction outside the province’s designated small-scale mining zone.

It was on Paje’s opinion that Zambales Gov. Hermogenes Ebdane based his issuance of 94 small-scale mining permits in just one day in the Masinloc-Sta. Cruz area. The small miners are mere fronts for big firms, at least five of which are Chinese. Foreigners are banned from exploiting natural resources. Yet the Chinese firms openly operate, and even have their own seaport to smuggle out several bulk-cargo shiploads of nickel ore per week.

The illegal mining runs counter to the Forestry Code, which Paje, a forester, is mandated to enforce as DENR head.

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“Carrie,” Brian de Palma and Stephen King’s film about religious fundamentalist extremism and murder, has horrified millions worldwide since its 1976 Hollywood debut. What is uncanny about the full musical version is how an initial flop can be re-scripted and restaged into a Broadway hit.

All that makes the local run of “Carrie” worth watching. Atlantis Productions has an outstanding cast: Menchu Lauchengco Yulo, K-La Rivera, Yanah Laurel, Markki Stroem, Shiela Valderrama-Martinez, and Jamie Wilson. Directed by Bobby Garcia, only till this weekend, at the Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza, Makati City.

For tickets and reservations, call Atlantis, (02) 8927078, 8401187; or Ticket World, (02) 8919999; or via website www.atlantisproductionsinc.com.

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Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

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