BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
ILOILO – Invoking humanitarian consideration, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Region 6 has temporarily allowed illegal settlers at the timberland area of Carles town’s Sicogon Island.
Regional Executive Director Jim O Sampulna said this agreement was reached during a recent dialogue with the representatives from the Commission on Human Rights, Philippine National Police, Department of Agrarian Reform and Federation of Sicogon Island Farmers and Fisherfolk Association (FESIFFA).
Most of the illegal settlers were FESIFFA members who claimed to have sought refuge in the timberland because their abodes were destroyed by super typhoon “Yolanda.”
Sampulna said he personally conducted an ocular inspection on the protected area located in Brgy. Buaya over the weekend, and he saw settlers at the lower part of the almost one-hectare timberland.
Sampulna said DENR will allow those people to stay there temporarily but with conditions – they should not occupy the upper part of the timberland and must refrain from doing illegal activities that will harm the area such as cutting of trees.
Last month, DENR ordered around 80 households to immediately vacate the portion of the timberland they have been unlawfully occupying.
The Notice of Eviction was issued against the members of FESIFFA headed by Raul Ramos.
At that time, according to Community Environment and Natural Resources Officer (CENRO) Salvador Manglinong Jr., association members refused to vacate the area even after they were informed of their violation (encroaching parts of the coastal portion of a protected forestal zone).
Yesterday, Sampulna did not say how long should the illegal settlers remain in the area.
During his inspection of the area, Sampulna said, he saw small trees that were cut down.
If the DENR would enforce the law stringently, he said, those people would surely be evicted and charged with “illegal forest occupancy” or trespassing on government-owned property.
The illegal settlers started occupying the area in March, said Sampulna.
FESIFFA has been resisting moves of Sicogon Development Corp. (SIDECO) to redevelop Sicogon into a world-class island resort.
In a letter sent to Sampulna last month, Manglinong recommended that SIDECO “continue the protection activity in the timberland areas.”
SIDECO committed to do so under the Adopt-A-Mountain Memorandum of Agreement it forged with the government much earlier.
Sicogon Island, a world-class tourism destination in the 1970s, is owned by SIDECO.
The company is partnering with a giant property developer to revive the island as a prime eco-tourism destination.
Recently, SIDECO legal counsel Alain Ross Sumile said FESIFFA members were “getting desperate each day.”
In a news article, he said, Ramos resorted to black propaganda by employing lies and half-truths that typhoon-displaced families were forced to occupy the islands’ forests.
“Worse, he was claiming that 200 families were camping out, which was a big lie,” the SIDECO counsel added.
Sumile urged the public not to “fall into the trap of FESIFFA.”
Sumile accused Ramos of using super typhoon “Yolanda” as a rallying point and misrepresenting the illegal settlers.
“This is because he knows that when you invoke the plight of the typhoon victims these days it surely is good copy for the media,” Sumile said./PN
