It’s official: CA bypasses Hehe

The committee on environment and natural resources of the Commission on Appointments formalized yesterday what was previously expected, the bypassing of the ad interim appointment of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Heherson Alvarez III.

The committee, presided over by Rep. Jurdin Jesus Romualdo, vice chairman, in the absence of Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr., the chairman, adjourned without any recommendation on Alvarez’s appointment for lack of material time.

Congress goes on recess tomorrow and under CA rules, all unconfirmed appointees are deemed bypassed. President Arroyo must reappoint Alvarez before the CA could resume its confirmation hearings. The President had earlier declared that she would reappoint Alvarez and the other unconfirmed Cabinet member, Transportation and Communications Secretary Pantaleon Alvarez.

Alvarez expressed disappointment over his bypassing, although he was confident that he had successfully rebutted all issues against him by his critics heard by the CA committee.

Alvarez was almost not able to rebut the charges after Palawan Rep. Vicente Sandoval moved to adjourn after hearing five opposed to his confirmation. Sandoval made the motion about three times and each time, Iloilo Rep. Narciso Monfort objected, saying the committee had to hear the side of Alvarez also.

"I was prepared to break the glass I was holding if Sandoval insisted," Monfort said later, still seething in rage over what he perceived to be an attempt to gag Alvarez.

Alvarez tried to turn the table on his main accuser, former Director Peter Anthony Abaya of DENR’s Environment Management Bureau, by claiming that Abaya gave six questionable firms the permit to import ozone-depleting substances (ODS).

Alvarez said that one of the firms was a trading firm, another was engaged in importing bras and ladies garments, while another had a paid-up capital of only P65,000.

"As a department secretary, I have to investigate why fly-by-night firms are allowed to import deleterious substances," he said.

He also claimed that these firms went on to import ODS which was sold at $6 a kilo, as against the world market of only $1.20 a kilo. He added that during the confusing days after EDSA 2, Abaya even sought to import 1,400 tons more of ODS.

Alvarez claimed that under the Montreal Protocol, the Philippines was obliged to reduce the importation of ODS.

"Mr. Abaya may be a mathematical genius but the fact speaks for itself — the importation of ODS under Mr. Abaya went up when it supposed to go down. No amount of mathematical mumbo jumbo can dispute this," he said.

The committee heard the opposition of Compostela Valley Rep. Manuel Zamora, Occidental Mindoro Rep. Josephine Sato, a businessman from Santiago City named Bernard Lim, Santiago Mayor Jose Miranda and a Cavite businessman Ligorio Naval.

Zamora, spokesman of the group of Mindanao congressman, lashed at the failure of Alvarez to address the problem of environment degradation at the gold rush area of Mt. Diwalwal. He said that 71 percent of those examined recently were found to have a high mercury level.

"Since 1984, some 5,000 have already died of mercury poisoning in Diwalwal," he claimed.

Alvarez said that the pollution problem in Diwalwal has been a problem under four presidents and nine secretaries of environment and natural resources. He maintained that while he has been in office for a little more than a year, he has already put in motion an action plan on Diwalwal.

"The Diwalwal case is a complicated one, as it also involves conflicting claims of about 18,000 persons and groups. The solution should involve all stakeholders," he argued.

Sato read the position paper of the Southern Tagalog Alliance of Representatives headed by Laguna Rep. Joaquin Chipeco Jr. She reiterated the earlier issues raised by Abaya and industrialist Enrique Zobel, like Alvarez’s treatment of Abaya, the issuance of six integrated forest management agreements to Singaporeans, and alleged conflict of interest in the handling of a $20 million fund for environmental protection from the World Bank.