Will a Samar log ban save the forest?

Seven Catholic bishops claim to have convinced Environment Secretary Michael Defensor to continue the logging ban on Samar Island. According to Archbishop Pedro Dean of Palo, Leyte, the log ban covered the timber license agreement given to Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile’s San Jose Timber Corp. (SJTC) to cut trees in Samar’s rich forest reserve and nature park.

That appears to be good news. Defensor was widely suspected of allowing Enrile’s timber company to resume harvesting logs in Samar as political payback. Enrile recently bolted the opposition and joined the administration bloc at the Senate. Enrile was also reported to have helped Defensor’s confirmation by the Commission on Appointments.

Any celebration, however, appears to be premature. Reasonable doubts have been expressed on whether a forest is better protected by a total ban on logging or by allowing a responsible logging company to operate and protect the concession area. The beauty of a total log ban is that any log being transported out of a forested area is automatically assumed to have been cut illegally. A total log ban works if we have an efficient law enforcement component, one that is also not easily corrupted.

The problem is, the situation on the ground is far from ideal. The bishops have only won part of the battle to save Samar’s forested areas. To complete their victory, they have to organize some means to now protect the forests from illegal loggers. They cannot depend on government’s law enforcement agencies to do that work. Otherwise, their victory last week is worse than hollow. They may have actually endangered the forests even more.

In fact, Sen. Enrile is claiming that "we have been operating that company [SJTC] from 1977 to 1978 all the way to 1989 and the [concession area] is still green… one of the "greenest portions"of the island." Enrile explained that’s "because we took care to see to it that the logging operations were proper. Now that we are not there anymore to guard the property, there are many patches already because people have been stealing logs in the forest."

Enrile does have a point, one that he claims is supported by a "comprehensive study" made in 1989 after the moratorium took effect. The study was said to have been led by Rev. Fr. Bienvenido N. Chiquillo, then parish priest of Paranas, Samar. That study supposedly found that SJTC’s "reforestation program is commendable… as evidenced by a higher percentage of healthy young trees in logged over areas, the company is performing satisfactorily in the implementation of selective logging."

That makes me wonder if it might have been better for the bishops to organize a group that would see to it Enrile’s company complies with the terms of his concession agreement rather than stop them from logging completely. A log ban deprives livelihood opportunities for the locals in that forsaken poverty stricken area. More importantly, the withdrawal of Enrile’s company opens it up to illegal loggers who would definitely inflict serious damage.

The high profile nature of Enrile’s lumber concession should make it difficult for the senator’s company to abuse the forest in violation of his concession agreement. Best of all, the self interest of Enrile’s company to protect the forest concession should be a better assurance for security than having to depend on overworked and underpaid forest guards under the payroll of Mr. Defensor’s office.

A total log ban policy certainly deserves a second thought from committed environmentalists, given the reality in our countryside. It isn’t as simple as some activists are making us believe.

Arrovo bills

So, there was a misprint in the name of the President in newly minted one hundred peso bills. Typo errors shouldn’t happen specially in expensive and high security printing jobs. But it happened and I don’t know what more our congressmen can find out by holding an investigation. It isn’t as if there aren’t more important matters our legislators should spend time on.

I also don’t see the point of discarding the stock of printed Arrovo bills not yet released to the public, specially if we have already paid for it. The life span of our bills, at four to five months, is rather short, anyway. Before we know it, those Arrovo notes would have served their purpose.

Apparently, the BSP’s local printing plant can no longer keep up with the volume required as we approach the Christmas season and as a consequence of their successful program to replace dirty bills. That’s why they had to subcontract with a European security printing plant.

What I don’t understand is, someone in BSP must have approved a final art work before the printing plate was made. While the lapse was not as bad, nor seemingly premeditated as the errors in BSP’s books during the waning years of Mr. Marcos, responsibility must be pinpointed.

Anyway, let us not waste good money we paid the European printers for those Arrovo bills by withholding them. That would be compounding the error with another more serious error of wasting the people’s money.

Philippine sports

I got this e-mail reaction to a column last week on our SEAG participation from reader N. Mapa.

I would just like to share my sentiments about your column last Wednesday. I’m quite elated with the performance of the Philippine Team at the on-going SEA games, but I would also like to agree that "it is so Filipino" for us to mask our weaknesses at home by way of the Fil-Am, or Fil-foreigner for that matter. Not that I find anything wrong with Fil-foreign players, but they should really complement a strong national team, and not counted on to repeatedly save the day for Philippine sports.

Take for example my sport, football. Three weeks before kick-off, the men’s RP team was not seeded, not even seen as placing or coming close to the semis. Two weeks and five Fil-foreigners later, people were talking about possibly reaching the finals and even beating powerhouses like Thailand and Malaysia. No doubt the level of footballing the Fil-foreigners brought with them catapulted the team into contention, but it masked the problem of Philippine sports, in football at the very least.

In the end, the Fil-foreigners piloted the team to respectability, a one to zero loss to the Thais, but it was not enough, the Blue boys crashed out of the tournament with a loss to the Malaysians. If the Philippines had a solid football program in the country, a pro or even semi-pro league, to build a solid core for the football squad, augmented by the Fil-foreigners, then maybe we could have won the gold. But the way things are going, we’ll always be riding the likes of Mr Mamiit (for tennis) and the Younghusbands (for football) for respectability for every sporting event in the coming years.

It’s very much how things are going in the economy. GMA’s been riding the wave of dollars that our OFWs are sending home. Without the remittances, we’d be in so much trouble. Same way, without Fil-foreigners, our medal tally would be far from first place. With the remittances, our economy is gaining respectability; while with the Fil-foreigners, our medal tally looks promising.

I do not want to take away anything from the Philippine team and the noble efforts of our athletes. I just feel we have to continue to work on domestic issues while welcoming the Fil-Foreigners to add the icing on the cake instead of asking them to do everything for us.

The eyes have it

Here’s Dr. Ernie E. with his prescription for today.

A very pert and attractive female employee meets with her boss and says, "I’d like to get something off my chest."

"What’s that?" asks the boss.

"Your eyes," she replies.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]