Durianburgdavao suffered and continues to suffer virus assaults to its computers and very, very low internet signal in its area of operation to explain the low numberof postings of your favorite news the past few days.
Please bear with us for a while as we fix the demons.
Rogerb.
Emar’s Wavepool, Queensland part of PRA plan in Davao coastline
Emar’s Hotel and Wavepool and Queensland Motel’s Bay Walk in the foreshore area of Matina Aplaya are projects that the national government would like to see in the country’s coastal areas, said Ed Destura of the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA).
Destura appeared at the Davao City Council on Tuesday to answer queries on the request for approval of resolutions of ‘No Objection’ by Emar’s and Queensland.
Emar’s has built its wavepool facility and Queensland its Bay Walk on a reclaimed area of a Recreation Area declared as city government property under Proclamation 20 issued in 1954 by the late President Magsaysay.
Both projects required a permit from the PRA, the government agency tasked with regulating and approving reclamation areas.
Destura said PRA’s vision is to see Davao City’s foreshores area transformed into income generators for revenues for both the local and national governments.
He told city councilors that PRA in fact has submitted to the Office of the President Economic Cluster Committee a comprehensive plan on the Davao Gulf coastal areas, that included Matina Aplaya, that gives focus on how the government can transform foreshore areas into business areas in viable economic partnerships with private investors.
Destura said PRA would soon be discussing the plan with city officials.
Destura said PRA has among its other tasks would “legalize illegal reclamations” like Emar’s and Queensland which have no permits from the PRA or the Department of Environment and Natural Rssources (DENR).
Emar’s and Queensland are also seeking a similar resolutions of “No Objection” for their application for Foreshore Lease Agreement (FLA) with DENR.
PRA would not be derailing business activities in the foreshore areas but assist them legalize their reclamation projects, Destura said told. ROGER M. BALANZA
DAVAO CITY TURNING INTO HAVEN FOR POOR
There is a downside to the flood of investment pouring into Davao City: a tsunami of informal settlers putting up hovels in riverbanks, coastal areas, roadsides in highways and any available spaces that are considered danger zones.
As Davao City progresses, more people from outside particularly the poor are coming in to stake their lot and future on better opportunities in the city.
But Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, no matter that his heart bleeds for the settlers, is unfazed by the transmigration and the fact of people placing safety at risk just to have a roof over their head.
This is a universal phenomenon, said Duterte in the recent edition of Gikan sa Masa Para sa Masa television program on ABS/CBN.
Duterte said the informal settlers come from neighboring provinces and regions either to escape violence or migrate to the city for economic opportunities.
He said he is not prone to drive the informal settlers away from the risky areas where they have put up shanties.
Their only sin is that they are poor, he said.
Duterte said transmigration is a universal economic thing: people go to places where they could have a peaceful and better future.
This is also happening in other areas, he said.
Social workers say many of newly-arrived informal settlers here come from regions wracked by violence or small vendors from other provinces temporarily pitching shanties anywhere as they find their place under the sun in this city of 1.4 million dubbed as the premier city of Mindanao.
Asked in the program by co-host Geraldine Tiu about what the local government plans to do with the informal settlers, Duterte said: I can send demolition crews, but where will I relocate them?
The only way for this problem to be solved is for the national government to increase its economic status to be able to provide employment to people, he said.
‘Davao City’s gold only for future Dabawenyos’
BY ROGER M. BALANZA
Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has laid down two conditions for him to allow mining in Davao City: modern technology that reduces to the barest minimum risk to people and environment and statutes that would ensure the poor would benefit from mining revenues.
Until such conditions are met, Davao City is mining-free, he said at the recent edition of the television show Gikan sa Masa Para sa Masa on ABS/CBN.
But Duterte also bared the underlying and primary reason why he is vehemently against mining at this point in time.
“Davao City’s mineral resources should be conserved for future generations of Dabawenyos,” he said.
They should be treated as a piggy bank of today’s children for their future, he said in the program hosted by lawyer Geraldine Tiu.
Duterte made the comment as a January 5 landslide in a gold mining settlement in Compostela Valley killed 36 people, with more than 40 people still missing.
Mining in Compostela Valley, also known as the Minerals Corridor of Mindanao, has helped the local economy but unregulated mining by smallscale and bigscale miners had led to hundreds of dead in tunnel cave-ins and landslides since gold was discovered in the province in the early 80s. Unstable peace and order and violence also added to the death tally.
Revenues from mining to increase funds for local government operations, and its attendant risk to people and the environment, may be the least that the Davao City needs today. Davao City is an economically viable corporate entity able to respond to public services with its annual revenue of nearly P5 billion. As a premier city in Mindanao, it is experiencing a surge in investments that could ensure a highly functional local government unit in the coming years.
Davao City’s hinterland districts of Marilog and Paquibato are said to be rich in deposits of gold and other minerals.
Foreign mining companies have expressed interest in exploration but found a solid wall in the local government’s anti-mining stance and heavy presence of the communist New Peoples Army (NPA) in these farflung districts. The NPA, the armed wing of the National Democratic Front (NDF) years ago publicly announced it would oppose any mining venture in Davao City.
Duterte said several years ago while he was the sitting mayor, an Australian mining company asked him to convince the NPA to allow the company to do exploration works in Paquibato.
He said he told the company that he is also not interested in having mining in the city.
Recently, Mayor Sara Duterte also has expressed aversion at mining operations in the city citing the attendant ills that go with mining—environmental pollution, unstable peace and order and social problems— that she said the local government wanted to avoid.
I am thanking my daughter for her position, said Duterte, the mayor’s father.
Duterte said present government policy on mining has not translated to economic benefits for the poor and workers in mining, and would like to see legislation that would ensure that mining companies share their revenues with the poor before he would change his own view on mining.
In the mining industry, the rich go richer, while the poor workers can hardly have three meals a day, he said.
Foreign mining companies come and then go away with the revenues leaving environmental devastation, with Filipinos getting only a pittance, he had earlier said.
He also said that national legislation should also be in place for foreign mining companies to answer to damages in case of disaster stemming out of their operation.
There is a surge in investment in the mining industry in the country today after the Arroyo government fully implemented the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, which allowed foreign capital in the mining industry.
58th murder case filed versus Ampatuans
The 58th complaint for murder was filed on Thursday before the Department of Justice (DOJ) against former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan, Sr., his son former Datu Unsay, Maguindanao Mayor Andal Ampatuan, Jr. and over a hundred other accused in the Maguindanao massacre case.
The other accused are former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan, former Acting Maguindanao Gov. Sajid Ampatuan, Akmad Ampatuan, Anwar Ampatuan, and 196 others.
It was earlier alleged that the massacre claimed the lives of 57 civilians, including 15 women and 30 media practitioners in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao on Nov. 23, 2009.
Only 57 counts for murder are now being tried by Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 221 Presiding Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes.
In a complaint-affidavit filed by Ma. Reynafe Momay-Castillo, she said that a case for murder should have been filed for the death of her father Reynaldo Geneblaza Momay, a photojournalist for the Tacurong City-based Midland Review even if his body has yet to be recovered.
Castillo said that only the dentures of her father were recovered.
The dentures, she said, was identified by the herbalist who made it “because he made these dentures and placed special marks on them” to identify that it was he who made it.
Atty. Gilbert Andres, the legal counsel of Castillo, said that the Philippine National Police (PNP) has already submitted their referral before the DOJ last year.
“We opted to file our complaint to remind the DOJ that there is still another victim whose case is not among those being tried in court,” Andres told reporters in an ambush interview.
Andres said that it was not only the dentures but they have witnesses who can say that he was part of the convoy of the wife of Maguindanao Gov. Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu that were ambushed and killed by armed men on Nov. 23, 2009..
“Authorities earlier reported that a total of 57 human remains have been recovered from the site and of these, only three have remained unidentified. Of the three human remains, two have a full set of teeth while the third has full upper and lower dentures,” Castillo said in her complaint-affidavit.
“This, (Peruvian forensic expert Dr. Jose Pablo) Baraybar said that at least another body is missing, bringing the fatalities in the slaughter of innocents to at least 58,” Castillo said.
UY PUSHES LOGGING BAN
Uy pushes anti-logging ban
Tagum City Mayor Rey T. Uy urged the Anti-Illegal Logging Task Force of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Office to strengthen the implementation of logging ban, following the delivery of almost 200 logs to the City Government of Tagum confiscated in Loreto, Agusan del Sur last December 30, 2011.
The local chief executive said this means there are still illegal loggers operating in the mountains, defying President Benigno S. Aquino III’s Executive Order No. 23 which orders a total log ban in the entire country.
Mayor Uy further stressed that the teeth of law should be properly implemented both in the sources of the logs as well as providing personnel in the roads where hot logs are being transported.
In a press conference last November 8, 2011, Mayor Uy challenged the DENR hierarchy to “clear their men” Uy expressing that while he is impressed by the efforts of the department to curb illegal logging, he is certain that there are few men from DENR who are involved in this illegal practice.
Meanwhile, the delivered logs – mostly of Lauan – will be utilized to fabricate school chairs which he hope could be distributed to all schools in Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley Provinces, respectively.
As of press time, 14, 435 pieces of school furniture were already distributed to different schools in Davao Region and some 4,000 pieces are already in place at the Tagum City Motor Pool ready for distribution
SMI pinning high hopes on lifting of open-pit mining ban
With five years to go before starting its operation, Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI) is optimistic the South Cotabato Provincial Board would lift its ban on open-pit mining.
The Board approved in 2010 the provincial Environmental Code which bans open-pit mining, the method that SMI would use in its US$5.9 billion Tampakan Gold and Copper Project, which is set to go into commercial operation in 2016.
The Board has been asked to review the Environmental Code, the biggest threat to the SMI project considered as the biggest single investment in the country today.
The Regional Mineral Development Council (RMDC) had filed a petition to review the Environmental Code as soon as it was approved, citing that it collided head-on with Republic Act 7942 or the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 and Republic Act 8371 or the Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997.
The Provincial Board is yet to review the code nearly two years after the petition was filed by the RMDC.
SMI is pinning hopes the Board would favor a review of the environment code to lift the open-pit mining ban, said John B. Arnaldo, SMI corporate communications manager
The Tampakan project of SMI backed by Canadian mining giant Xstrata Copper, the world’s fourth largest copper producer, is seen as a crucial project that was expected to dramatically transform South Cotabato’s economic landscape when its starts operation.
Nearly two years after the RMDC petition to review was filed, the members of the Board are still studying their options, according to Board Member Ernesto Catedral.
Many of the board members belonging to the committees tasked to act on the petition have yet to submit their positions, he said.
SMI responds to ECC decision for Tampakan Mine Project
DENR decision not made on the merits of Environmental Impact Statement
