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PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER ON AGRARIAN REFORM HAILS SC RULING AGAINST PICOP
by Mia Gonzales
Business Mirror
January 02, 2007
Former environment secretary Heherson Alvarez on Sunday hailed the Supreme Court ruling against the Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines (Picop), calling it a “triumph of environmental defense against wealth-making big business insensitivity.”
Alvarez, who is the presidential adviser for agrarian reform, said in an interview with Business Mirror that the decision was “very timely” in view of the spate of natural disasters that hit the country last year that “confirms the need to uphold the rules for environment conservation and security as mandated by the Constitution.”
“While we recognize the need to create wealth using our natural resources, this must be done without compromising the environment, public good, and with due respect for the rule of law. We imposed fair conditions to protect the forest, which Picop must first comply with, but failed to do so,” he said.
In a 58-page ruling penned by Justice Minita Chico Nazario, the Court reversed the earlier decisions of the Court of Appeals and the Quezon City Regional Trial Court favoring the automatic conversion of Picop’s 75,545 hectares of Timber License Agreement (TLA) in Mindanao into an Integrated Forest Management Agreement (Ifma).
Alvarez, who felt vindicated by the ruling, said that “if business threatens the very source of wealth,” referring to forests, “business should be put in its place.”
When he was still Environment Secretary, Alvarez refused the automatic conversion of Picop’s TLA into Ifma when it expired on April 25, 2002, arguing that the firm must first pay the government P167,592,440 un unpaid forest charges as of August 2002, and must comply with other legal requirements.
Alvarez said that at that time, Picop’s registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had expired and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples refused to grant Picop the necessary clearances because Picop’s TLA 43 overlapped with ancestral lands of the Manobos.
Parts of TLA 43’s area were also within an 8,100-hectare mineral reservation set aside by President Arroyo through Proclamation 279 on November 25, 2002, he said.
But Picop insisted that it was entitled to automatic Ifma conversion citing a Presidential Warranty dated July 29, 1969 issued by then President Ferdinand Marcos to the company.
Picop won a civil case at the QC-RTC to compel Alvarez to sign the Ifma, and again at the Court of Appeals.
Alvarez brought the case before the Court of Appeals, and later on, to the Supreme Court, which sided with Alvarez that Picop could not get its Ifma unless it settled its legal obligations, forest charges and SEC registration. Picop officials have said that they would contest the ruling, which they warned would cause the loss of 200,000 jobs in Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Sur, Davao Oriental, and the Compostela Valley.
But Alvarez maintained that there may be no such massive job loss for as long as there is “sustainable forest management.”
“Jobs need not be sacrificed if there is sustainable forest management. If we did not set these conditions, we could be remiss in our duty as stewards of the environment and could spell untold disasters to the nation as shown by recent massive flooding and monster storms,” he said.
He took exception to criticism against the Court ruling, saying it was necessary to “protect the future.”
Alvarez also brushed aside Picop’s contention that the ruling, if upheld with finality, would cost the government billions of pesos in lost tax revenues, forestry charges and other fees, considering that it contributed a total of P2.29 billion to the national economy from 1991 to 2001.
Picop had also ealier warned that the closure of its Southern Mindanao plant would lead to deforestation in the Caraga region as it spends P100 million a year for forest protection.
To this, Alvarez said: “No business is indispensable when it’s the national interest that is involved. The department can move in, and assign it (the area) to people who are more competent.”
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