Only Paje is defending despised Zambo miner

A predecessor is opposing Ramon Paje’s confirmation as Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources for incompetence. But conservationists think worse, wanting the Congress Commission on Appointments to reject Paje for improbity.

Resistance to Paje revolves mainly around the Lupa Pigegetawan Mining Corp. that is extracting gold and other minerals in Zamboanga del Sur. Governor Antonio Cerilles has been trying to close down the mine for alleged pollutive ways, false representations, and other illegalities.

Lupa Pigegetawan operates as a small-scale mine of tribesmen. But from numerous reports, its real capitalist is one Manuel “Manny” Go, a businessman from Cebu who allegedly fronts for mainland Chinese.

A former environment-natural resources secretary, Cerilles says that Lupa Pigegetawan is operating under a baseless concession granted by the previous Arroyo administration. Paje, who was nominated to the plum post under President Noynoy Aquino, supposedly played a crucial role in the shady licensing.

Then-Secretary Lito Atienza gave Lupa Pigegetawan a Special Ore Extraction Permit (SOEP) towards the end of the Arroyo tenure, Cerilles recounts. Paje got Atienza to do so as his adviser on mining, undersecretary for operations, and president of the Mineral Resources Development Corp. under the Office of the President.

(If Paje’s name sounds familiar, it could be because he was widely accused of having allowed the denudation of the seaside forests of Real and Infanta in Quezon. Mud and timber engulfed the two towns during downpours in December 2004, leading to the deaths of hundreds of barrio folk.)

The basis for granting Lupa Pigegetawan an SOEP was its supposed ownership by indigenous mountain dwellers in Bayog town, Zamboanga del Sur, in western Mindanao. But the listed tribesmen are from Bukidnon province, two regions and hundreds of miles far to the east.

More than that, Cerilles laments, there is no such thing as an SOEP under the Mining Act of 1995 or the Small-Scale Mining Law of 1991. Still, the unfounded special grant enabled Lupa Pigegetawan to skirt the requirements for indigenous peoples to acquire mining permits. That, according to Cerilles, was how outsider Manuel Go entered the picture.

In a letter to the Commission on Appointments, Cerilles alleges that Paje during the past administration did not lift a finger to stop Atienza from issuing a fake permit. Not only that, Paje is even defending the SOEP’s questioned legitimacy under his present watch at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Paje’s basis for upholding the SOEP is Lupa Pigegetawan’s supposed ownership by Bayog tribesmen. This is despite the latter’s written complaints against the mining firm to the DENR, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, the Environment Management Bureau, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, and the provincial capitol.

For this, Cerilles in his letter to CA chairman, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, describes Paje in big bold letters as “INCOMPETENT.”

Still, the question for environmentalists is Paje’s ties to Lupa Pigegetawan financier Manuel Go.

Go, contrary to the low-profile habit of Chinese-Filipino entrepreneurs, often is seen in newspaper photographs with high government officials, among them Paje. He is branded in several reports and blogspots as a user of tribesfolk as front for “small-scale” mines. His clients allegedly are Chinese nationals whose mission, like in Africa, is to suck up all the precious metals and minerals they can, for China’s commerce and military. Go is also said to be a close friend of Paje’s.

Licenses for “small” operations do not go through the usual rigors — and taxes — imposed on “large-scale” miners. But Go’s operations are said to be anything but small and fit only for poor tribesmen. The one in Bayog, Zamboanga del Sur, is guarded by men with high-powered weapons from a security agency owned by retired generals.

Violence has broken out several times, as true tribesmen of Bayog have been trying to stop the outsiders from taking their gold. Cerilles and the town mayor have ordered the closure of the mine, to no avail.

Avoiding the question of his ties to Go, Paje prefers to pound on the supposed legality of Lupa Pigegetawan’s special permit. While no law allows it, he has stated that no law forbids it either.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima contradicts Paje, however. In a memo as far back as September 2011 she told him that special permits should not elude but follow the requirements of law. In the Bayog case, the application of Lupa Pigegetawan should have been evaluated first by DENR bureaus that are tasked with such functions, not sneaked through political connections.

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I got out of the threatened US East Coast in the nick of time, on the Sunday night before Superstorm Sandy struck 21 states. So instead of being caught in days-long blackouts, I had the chance to review how a developed country prepares for and reacts to disaster (and am happy to be back).

Five days prior, the news media already were reporting that a huge storm was looming. Weathermen initially forecast Sandy possibly to strike the Atlantic coast on the weekend, but later changed this to Monday afternoon.

The accuracy of the storm trackers and the warnings by news networks enabled government, business, and civic leaders to plan accordingly. Airlines, trains and bus companies ferried hundreds of thousands of passengers till the deadlines set by government authorities to stop. Residents determined to be in harm’s way forcibly were evacuated to snug, warm, carpeted storm shelters. Policemen patrolled the evacuated communities against looters. Guardsmen and other volunteers looked after the victims’ needs, from food to special communications to evacuation even of pets.

It’s no wonder that a storm that packed winds double that of recent supertyphoons in the Philippines resulted in the death of only a little over a hundred people. Most of the affected US states, counties, cities and townships were prepared. They had detailed disaster management plans, which they rehearsed over and over.

A superstorm such as Sandy had been anticipated as far back as 12 years ago. Scientists had said so, and most officials believed their analyses of the effects of climate change.

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

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