MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/6 February)— The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has seized 500 sacks of Benguet pine tree resins weighing around 30,000 kilograms from a Chinese contractor of the government-owned Bukidnon Forest, Inc. (BFI).
Vergilino Alima, DENR-Malaybalay chief, told MindaNews the recent seizure came after warnings to BFI general manager Reynaldo Abordo to stop the extraction of resins due to lack of permit.
He identified the Davao City-based contractor as Chinese firm Luda Chemicals Inc. (LCI)
Residents have registered their opposition to the extraction in discussions on air and on the social networks. They feared that the extraction might slo
wly kill the pine trees, which help provide Malaybalay its cool weather.
Alima estimated the value of the seized resins to be around P600,000, at P20 per kilo. Harvesters in the village told this reporter they are paid P11 per kilo to harvest the resins, done like the harvesting of rubber saps.
He said the extraction is reportedly done within and outside BFI’s 38,000-hectare Industrial Forest Management Agreement (IFMA), which will expire in 2016.
Alima stressed that BFI had been warned as early as May 2012 that the extraction of resins, believed to be an ingredient to produce inks and paints, requires a permit because it is still considered an “ordinary minor forest product.”
“They told us they will process the permit. As of now, we were told they are still processing their integrated annual operation plan,” he added.
Alima said the BFI and LCI have been invited to a DENR administrative deliberation on February 13 for them to “shed light” on the matter.
The seized sacks of pine tree resins have been piled at a dirt road in Barangay Can-ayan and covered with cogon grasses, apparently to protect its quality.
LCI reportedly employed watchmen to protect the stock from saboteurs.
Over radio station DXDB Tuesday, Danny Lucine, a BFI officer, admitted that BFI does not have a permit to extract pine tree resins.
He said, however, that they have a memorandum of agreement with the LCI.
Alima, who assumed the DENR-Malaybalay post recently, said his office has no copy of the MOA, hence they have no idea about the scope of the contract.
He doubted the initial statements by BFI and LCI that the extraction is only experimental.
“Unbelievable, this is a big stock we got here,” Alima said.
Huang Ming Xing, a resource person from LCI, said during a hearing at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan in May 2012 that the extraction of resin “is not harmful to pine trees.”
Last year’s hearing was meant to shed light on the supply contract between BFI and LCI to tap resins from pine trees inside the 38,000-hectare IFMA of the former.
At the time, then DENR-Malaybalay chief Ferdinand Dagolo wrote BFI about the need to get an extraction permit.
Environment Secretary Ramon Paje also directed BFI then to stop its tree harvesting operations, reportedly pursuant to the instruction of President Aquino to implement a total log ban in the country.
Back then, BFI’s Abordo said the experimental deal with LCI on resin extraction “was a transition to BFI’s alternative source of income.”
BFI, previously the Bukidnon Industrial Tree Plantation Project (BIPP), is a government-owned and controlled corporation under the National Resources Development Corporation. As BIPP, it was funded by the New Zealand government until it was terminated as a foreign-assisted project of the DENR in 1998.
Board member Nemesio Beltran Jr. has sponsored a resolution urging President Aquino to cancel BFI’s IFMA ahead of its expiration in 2016, and its contract with the Chinese firm.
He cited that BFI and LCI “misled” the provincial board during a hearing last year that their initial deal was only experimental, and will not be pursued without the go-signal from provincial officials. (Walter I. Balane/MindaNews)
