Lawyer: Court permission a legal victory

CEBU, Philippines — One of the legal counsels of Palompon, Leyte residents who have taken the town’s local chief executive to court cheered what he claimed as a legal victory for his clients in their complaint for violation of environmental laws against the DBSN Farms Agriventures Inc., which is owned by the family of Mayor Ramon Oñate.

“The decision of the Regional Trial Court Branch 45 permitting the search and excavation of several areas of the Palompon Protected Watershed being occupied by the poultry farm is a huge victory for our clients, regular citizens, who have taken a staunch stand against the mayor of their town, whose family owns DBSN. These people are outranked in power and influence, and yet they stood their ground to defend their survival,” lawyer Lloyd Surigao said in a press statement.

Surigao said the controversy surrounding the operation of the DBSN poultry farm in Barangay San Joaquin is a battle between logic and lies.

Surigao said “this is a battle between logic and lies which could drag on for years due to legal maneuverings,” stressing that the fight for justice is far from over.

“Ang hirap sa kalaban namin, puro kasinungalingan ang alam. Gone are the days when our leaders have the decency to lead. Gone are the days when our leaders stick to the truth,” he said.

Simplehan na lang natin: When the DENR excavated 3 areas pointed out by our witnesses, lahat positive sa basura. That is proof that wastes were dumped there. Now who is lying? Yung basura, kitang kita na, pero ‘yung mayor, nagpapalusot pa rin,” Surigao said.

He also cited alleged inconsistencies in the statements and actions of Oñate during a hearing at the House of Representatives on the controversy, where he invited congressmen to do an ocular inspection of the DBSN site to disprove the allegations of illegal dumping of chicken and other solid wastes.

Surigao claimed that the mayor used government resources to stop the DENR from checking the farm site.

“He deliberately used LGU vehicles to block the barangay road and even sent his employees as human barricades. Mayor Oñate’s words contradict his action,” he alleged.

Surigao also noted the statement of the mayor that no part of Palompon town has been declared as a protected area, which he said is false.

“May I remind the mayor of the existence of Presidential Proclamation 212 which created the Palompon Watershed Forest Reserve. This is the same PWFR that he used when the LGU drafted its CLUP (Comprehensive Land Use Plan), the same PWRF used as reference in the FLUP (Forest Land Use Plan) that his office filed with the DENR-8. So, his statements are inconsistent and illogical,” he said.

“Help us spread the truth in Palompon. Help us fight the injustice against our citizens. Help us push our government officials to do their job in protecting the environment and the interests of our people. Help us bring these criminals to face their day in court,” Surigao appealed to the public.

Search, diggings

A Regional Trial Court branch in Tacloban City issued the search warrant upon petition of Regional Executive Director Lormelyn Claudio of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) of Region 8 with allegations that the poultry farm has been dumping hazardous wastes from chicken in violation of laws.

Escorted by operatives of the Leyte Police Provincial Office, the DENR-8 team, headed by Glenn Garciano of the agency’s Enforcement Division, served the warrant to DBSN.

On January 19, the DENR excavated three pre-selected sites and, in the presence of Mayor Oñate himself, his personnel and policemen of the town and province, collected water and soil samples supposedly for subsequent tests.

On January 21, or two days after, the DENR resumed its excavation, with some NBI men brought in to witness, of other sites stipulated in the court order. But there were other sites also dug up even if these were not stated in the warrant, according to lawyers of DBSN.

The DENR team said it found chicken manure, plastic bottles, and empty cans, among usual trashes buried in areas outside of those specified in the warrant, adding that nothing was found at the excavation site within the areas specified on the search warrant.

Further, the court issued the search warrant on allegations that DBSN Farms’ poultry was constructed inside the Palompon Watershed Forest Reserve (PWFR) under Presidential Proclamation 212, in violation of RA 11038 or the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System (E-NIPAS) Act of 2018.

Oñate, however, maintained that the poultry farm is not located in a protected area and there is no protected area declared by the government yet in Palompon. Even in the DENR website, the PWFR is not on the list of protected areas in the country, much less the region, said the mayor who owns DBSN Farms.

His lawyers said that, before the PWFR is classified a protected area, it must first pass the DENR’s Protected Area Sustainability Assessment (PASA). But coming up with a failed PASA rating, the DENR recommended the Disestablishment of PWFR as initial component of E-NIPAS and no longer a protected area. These, taken into consideration, DBSN’s poultry farm on Lot 5150 did not violate any provisions of the E-NIPAS Act, they said.

The DBSN also filed a motion last Jan. 16 to quash the search warrant and suppress any evidence obtained therein, claiming that there has been a misrepresentation by the DENR in the application for the search warrant in court. Its counsels added that there was no probable cause at all in issuing the warrant.

It was learned that last year, the court had issued a TRO against the conduct of excavations at the DBSN area based on former town mayor Georgina Arevalos’s allegations that the farm had been made an open dump site of domestic and other hazardous wastes.

The allegations of Arevalo, a political rival of Oñate, followed after 4th District Representative Richard Gomez initiated a Congressional inquiry, allegedly due to residents’ complaints about the burying of solid and hazardous waste in the area. In wanting to produce evidences to the allegations, Arevalo and Gomez asked the DENR to implement the excavation.

Oñate however protested and obtained a TRO against the plan, contending that a search warrant or court order be taken first before any such activities be done on his farm, which is a private property. The court stopped DENR of its excavation plans until this month when a search warrant was finally issued.

Oñate yielded to the warrant, which was carried out by the DENR. He said that, after digging up 11 sites there were zero wastes related to his poultry dressing and breeder farms, debunking accusations that DBSN has been dumping hazardous wastes from its plants around its site.

DENR only found cans and bottles, household wastes, which was however buried securely on the ground so as not to affect the residents, workers of the farm, said the mayor.

“The buried chicken manure serves as fertilizer also to the plants in the area and, as proof of no hazardous wastes, there has never been any cases of health issues among his workers who he built houses to live within the farm,” said Oñate. — (FREEMAN)