Lanao firm immune from total log bans

Overlapping political jurisdictions, faulty documentation, and most of all spotty law enforcement. Thus, one timber firm was able to enjoy immunity from total logging bans imposed by Malacañang and the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao. These are the initial findings of ARMM acting Gov. Mujiv Hataman about the forest denudation that caused last month’s deadly flood in Iligan City. Criminal charges are forthcoming against the tree-cutters and their abettors, he swears.

Upon assuming office last month, Hataman’s transition team saw what’s wrong. Despite log bans imposed by previous governors Zaldy Ampatuan in 2006 and Ansaruddin Adiong in 2010, VicMar Development Corp. has kept felling trees in the mountains of Kapai town, Lanao del Sur. Its stockpiling was being done in a pond where the Kapai and Bayug rivers meet, in the adjacent province of Lanao del Norte. And its sawmill-cum-head office is downriver in seaside Iligan.

With Storm Sendong’s extraordinary downpour last Dec. 17 mud, boulders and logs cascaded from the mountains onto Iligan. More than a thousand residents perished, ten thousand lost their homes, and a billion pesos in farms and structures were destroyed. During his swearing-in days later Hataman received orders from President Noynoy Aquino to verify if logging in ARMM indeed caused the ruin.

Lanao del Sur, whose governor Mamintal Adiong is the brother of the former ARMM head, is within the autonomous zone. But Lanao del Norte and Iligan are not, and so outside Hataman’s authority. This gave the departing ARMM secretary of environment-natural resources, and the Lanao del Sur provincial and Kapai community subordinates a convenient excuse to disown responsibility. They had no control over the log pond and sawmill in Lanao del Norte and Iligan.

Hataman’s transition team didn’t buy the alibi. For, the reports were contradictory. It took the outgoing ARMM environment-natural resources officials five days to turn over the files, and piecemeal at that. Still the record spoke for itself. The officials had bragged about patrolling during their tenure 304,000 hectares, or 100 percent, of ARMM forests. The latter at the same time had claimed that if ever VicMar was logging in Kapai and the next town of Tagaloan-II, they would have known and thus supervised it. But they supposedly hadn’t seen any logging during their sweeping patrols, so either they condoned VicMar’s tree cutting or lied about patrolling. Hataman is demanding a written explanation of their laxity.

From the files, VicMar preceded the founding of the ARMM in 1989. Since 1975 it used to hold a timber license over 18,700 hectares, under its registered rep Rufino Nasser. Before the license expired VicMar converted to an Integrated Forest Management Agreement, this time for 6,800 hectares in Kapai and Tagaloan-II, under rep Juanito Pagcaliwagan. The IFMA was issued under ARMM governor Lininding Pangandaman. A succession of ARMM environment-natural resources secretaries renewed it every two years.

Where the national government authority ended and the regional autonomy came in has always been hazy. VicMar’s IFMA did not pass through the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. But in 2005 it had to take then-secretary Michael Defensor to lift the ban on transporting logs to Cotabato region.

Despite Ampatuan’s log ban in 2006, his executive secretary went above the ARMM secretary of environment to exempt VicMar in 2009. Adiong, taking over when Ampatuan was jailed for the Maguindanao massacre, ordered a log ban anew in the ARMM in 2010. President Aquino imposed the same nationwide in 2011. A Bualan Rebel Returnee Multi-Purpose Cooperative wrote to present DENR Sec. Ramon Paje that the ARMM is exempted from the presidential order. By virtue of this letter VicMar continued tree-cutting.

Hataman last week requested the Army brigade in Lanao del Sur to stop VicMar’s logging once and for all. He expects the military units in Lanao del Norte and adjacent provinces to coordinate, for a total stop even outside the ARMM.

Hataman’s continuing probe is sure to unearth the ruling Lanao political clans and henchmen-mayors involved in the environment ruin. The Army knows who they are, and only needs assurance of no political backlash to go after them.

*      *      *

Up to 17 months ago some NBI field units did not have computers, vehicles or weapons with which to track and confront organized crime. Intelligence funds were being used not for investigation but personal enrichment. Mere informers were raiding not drug lairs but girlie bars that paid protection money. In the public’s eyes the premiere law enforcement agency was deteriorating into a mere issuer of employment clearances — and an inept one at that.

Director Magtanggol Gatdula reportedly has arrested the decline. Key operatives are now equipped with Glock service firearms, and field offices provided with instant communication systems. Gyms have been built to emphasize training, and the headquarters spruced up to look like a real state subdivision and not a slum extension.

There have been missteps. Like, a mere office security team “arrested” an undocumented alien, with doubtful clearance from higher-ups and in duplication of Immigration functions. The infraction, later exposed to be extortion, embarrassed the government. But on the whole the NBI has recovered. Gatdula must go on retraining low-performing units and abolishing unwanted ones.

*      *      *

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

E-mail: [email protected].