Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro City (ACDO) Ecology Care (ECO-CARE) and Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center –Kasama sa Kalikasan/Friends of the Earth-Philippines
25 January 2009
SECRETARY ELEAZAR QUINTO
DENR Secretary
DENR Compound, Visayas Ave., Diliman,
Quezon City
Dear sir:
Congratulation as the new DENR Secretary!
The Growing cry of the people of Gingoog City on the logging issue and the fear of any flashflood that would hit again in the village as the cutting of trees in the remaining forest of Gingoog and Claveria continued as of this writing.
This letter is a response to your Press Release (PR) posted on your website entitled “Independent experts team to probe Misamis Oriental timber firm” posted on January 18, 2010, 1:42pm. After the 25,000 people signed and filed to your office to register our call to immediately cancel the Integrated Forest Management Agreement (IFMA) issued to Southwood Timber Corporation (STC) last May 23, 2008.
As a prerequisite of any projects within the Ancestral Domain, a project proponent must secure a Certificate of Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) from the affected indigenous cultural communities as enshrine in the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA or R.A. 8371) and pursuant to NCIP Department Administrative Order No. 1, series of 2006 known as the FPIC guidelines of 2006. On your PR, the IFMA permit was approved on May 2008 after the firm secured a Certificate of Free Prior and Informed Consent from affected indigenous cultural communities living inside Southwood Timber Concession area. The FPIC was issued to STC in November, 2007 by the Minalwang Higaonon Tribal Council (MIHITRICO) through chieftain Datu Salagaa a.k.a Allan Mandokita.
To correct the facts posted, STC applied for FPIC process in the NCIP regional office on October 10, 2007 and started FPIC ground work on November 2007. In this case, two affected IP communities of the said STC’s 11,476 hectares logging project. The first one is, the Kamahan-Sagabalan-Higaonon Ancestral Domain Title Association (KSHADT) in Brgy. Eureka, Gingoog city represented by Allan Mandokita, the second one is, Minalwang Higaonon Tribal Council (MIHITRICO) chaired by Joel P. Mansagkagan. Of the two IP communities, only MIHITRICO is registered Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) holder as of December 31, 2009 NCIP report. MIHITRICO was granted their CADT last October 2008 and finally delivered to the community last November 19, 2009 by NCIP officials after almost 8 years of documenting and processing. MIHITRICO covers an area of 18,028.63 hectares within the Barangay Minalwang, Claveria, Misamis Oriental. At least 8,000 hectares of MIHITRICO’s CADT is within the IFMA of STC. Nothing on the records of the Minalwang IP community and of the NCIP office that the chieftain is Allan Mandokita.
On you PR again, the firm was likewise issued a Certificate of Precondition (CP) for its IFMA application by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) under en banc Resolution No. 221, dated April 3, 2008. On this note, it is clear from the compliance certificate signed by Commissioner Eugenio Insegne that the Certificate Precondition was issued by KSHADT of Brgy Eureka, Gingoog City to STC. In short, only Brgy Eureka IP community has given their consent that covers 3,000 hectares to the logging project. To emphasize, No certificate of Precondition was issued by MIHITRICO through NCIP for Southwood.
In the last part of the PR which said that the Higaonon people in the area are now opposing STC’s operation. We have to correct that the Higaonon of Minalwang has been consistently opposing the said IFMA project even prior to the approval from your office last May 23, 2008. The Minalwang community opposition was final last January 2008 after they decided during the community gathering that “BABALAON”, a spirit who would guide them, give no positive sign to give the project a go signal. This led the Minalwang community to finally reject the said IFMA application.
On my last note, Allan Mandokita, a Municipal IP sectoral representative and an automatically an ex-officio City Council member is the co-sponsor of the resolution no. 2007-351 last December 10, 2007 endorsing favorably to the DENR through CENRO the application of IFMA at Barangay Eureka, Gingoog City, of Southwood Timber Corporation (STC), provided that all necessary requisites for such application have been duly met and complied with. Italics supplied to emphasize that the said City Council endorsement is conditional “if necessary requisites are met and complied by STC”. Allan Mandokita happens to be the IP Eureka community representative for the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between them and the STC.
This resolution was revoked by the Gingoog City Council last December 28, 2009 during special session by 8-2 votes favoring the endorsement to DENR Secretary to cancel the IFMA permit awarded to STC. Allan Mandokita together with Dr. Mortiz, who attended the session voted not to revoke the 2007 city council endorsement. On the other hand, the Local Government Unit (LGU) of Claveria, Misamis Oriental who happens to be the host LGU Barangay of Minalwang never issued any endorsement to the said project when in fact LGU of Claveria issued a resolution to exclude Barangay Minalwang of the said logging project in 2009.
More than that, such agreement will prove to be detrimental not only to the environment but also to the lives, livelihood, homes, families and the communities of Gingoog and its nearby towns. In 2009, massive destruction has been brought to Gingoog due to the flashfloods and heavy rains last January and November incidents. These destructive incidents will not cease if we will let the massive & destructive cutting of trees continue in the mountains of Gingoog and Minalwang until 2033.
The Asia Pacific Timber Corp (APTCO) also showed their opposition to the city council’s decision and the growing call of the people to cancel the IFMA permit. APTCO, a wood processing plant is a sister company of STC which is registered at Securities and Exchange Commission as a “corporation engage in wood processing business such as veneer and other wood related products, and to trade the same on a wholesale basis.
The 25,000 people and counting appealing to your office to immediately CANCEL THE INTEGRATED FOREST MANAGEMENT AGREEMENT (IFMA) PERMIT issued to SOUTHWOOD TIMBER CORPORATION (STC).
In Behalf of the Eco-care,
Carl Cesar C. Rebuta
Team Leader
Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center
Cagayan de Oro Regional office

Press release;

A logging firm allegedly committing technical illegal logging within their concession area in Misamis Oriental will be the maiden case for a scheme hatched last December by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to rid its list of errant holders of forest lease contracts.

This, as Acting DENR Secretary Eleazar Quinto today ordered the review of the Integrated Forest Management Agreement (IFMA) of Southwood Timber Corp. (STC) by forestry and environmental science experts outside of DENR to ensure impartiality and transparence in the resolution of the STC case.

“The assessment of the STC case should get underway within this month as efforts to form a panel of experts for the purpose are already in the works,” said Quinto.

Quinto’s move is in response to calls from residents and local officials of Gingoog City and Brgy. Minalwang in the town of Claveria in Misamis Oriental to cancel STC’s IFMA for alleged violations of its lease contract, such as harvesting of old-growth trees from identified protection forest inside the firm’s concession area of 11,475.8 hectares in Gingoog City and a portion of Brgy. Claveria.

As a DENR policy, trees in areas at 1,000 meters above sea level are automatically part of protection forests and should not be cut. Cutting of trees in watershed areas are also prohibited.

Last December, then DENR Secretary Lito Atienza approved the allocation of some PhP8 million to fund the audit of all forest lease contracts to be undertaken by an independent body made up of experts in environmental studies and forestry matters outside of the DENR.

Under STC’s 25-year lease contract, the company shall adopt the selective logging system in the harvesting of the mature and over-mature naturally growing trees within IFMA’s production residual natural forests. The company has also committed to establish tree plantations in open and denuded areas which they can harvest upon maturity.

Development activities in an IFMA are allowed in areas that are open with degraded residual forests, as programmed in the Integrated Operations Plan duly approved by the DENR. Trees that may be incidentally cut in the course of these developmental activities, such as road widening and rehabilitation and tree plantation development, may be allowed provided that the corresponding forest charges are paid to the government. Local government units, from provincial unit down to barangay level, get a share from these forest charges.

As a condition to the approval of STC’s IFMA application, which was approved in May 2008, the firm secured a Certificate of Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) from affected indigenous cultural communities living inside STC’s concession area. The FPIC was issued to STC in November, 2007 by the Minalwang Higaonon Tribal Council (MIHITCO) through their chieftain Datu Salagaa a.k.a Allan M. Mandokita. The firm was likewise issued a Certificate of Precondition for its IFMA application by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) under NCIP en banc Resolution No. 221, dated April 3, 2008.

The Minalwang Higaonon Tribal Council was granted a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) over 8,000 hectares of area on November 19, 2009, which is inside STC’s IFMA area.

However, the Higaonon people in the area are now opposing STC’s operation. Environmentalists and church-based groups in the province such as the Ecological Care (EcoCare), the Ecology Desk of the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro, environmentalists have thrown their support to MIHITRICO’S stance against STC