NGOs, tribal groups urge DENR to cancel coffee plantation permit

MANILA, Philippines — Non-government organizations and indigenous groups are urging the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to cancel its integrated forest management agreement (IFMA) with M&S Co. Inc.

M&S, an affiliate of Consunji-led DMCI Holdings, operates the Dawang coffee plantation in Lake Sebu in South Cotabato.

The NGOs claimed that M&S Co. is encroaching on the ancestral domain of the T’boli-Manobo S’daf Claimants Organization (TAMASCO) in South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat.

M&S operates the plantation under an  IFMA,which is authorized by the DENR.

“For indigenous people, land is life. For 28 years, we have not been able to farm and make a living because of the plantation. This is unfair, unjust, and undemocratic,” TAMASCO chair Dande Danyan said.

The IFMA expired in 2016, but was renewed by the DENR by integrating it into another approved IFMA given to M&S without consent of the IP group.

The groups claimed that this was a violation of the Indigenous People’s Rights Act, which requires that any activity in an ancestral domain must seek the consent of the IP from a certain domain.

“The merger of the two IFMAs awarded to M&S by the DENR is a gross violation of the free, prior, and informed consent of the indigenous people as provided for in the law,” TAMASCO legal counsel Pochoy Labog said.

“The merger was a sleight of hand that skirted the expiration of the agreement to favor a big company over a marginalized indigenous people. The DENR must immediately cancel this dubious permit and end the continuing violation of M&S,” he said.

The Dawang coffee plantation used to be a part of the logging concession of the Sarmiento Industries covering the towns of Kalamasig, Bagumbayan, Isulan, Palimbang, all in Sultan Kudarat, and in the municipality of Maitum, Sarangani.

The logging concession was then covered by the industrial tree plantation lease agreement (ITPLA) until June 1991.

A year later, the ITPLA was converted into IFMA and awarded to the Consunji company.