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Retired general Victor Corpus has the gall to brag that he would pursue an "aggressive pro-people reforestation program" nationwide to provide jobs to people living in upland villages, including his former comrades in the New People's Army (NPA). Corpus thinks that he can still fool others into believing his propeople and defender-of-the-environment posture. Not in Panay, especially not among the Tumanduk minority. Out there, they have but one name for the general full of hot air: Big-time swindler!  Corpus was a lieutenant in the defunct Philippine Constabulary when he joined the NPA in 1971. He was captured in 1976 and rejoined the reactionary military upon his release in 1986. Since then until his retirement in 2004, he held various positions in the AFP, mostly in the fields of intelligence and psy-war. He was appointed by Arroyo in December 2004 as Presidential Adviser for the Anti-Illegal Logging Task Force and the National Reforestation Program. It was part of the regime's media-hyped response to massive landslides and floods in Aurora and Quezon caused by large-scale commercial logging. "Greening Panay." Corpus' appointment to such positions was premised on his allegedly excellent record on reforestation while he was still assigned to the Philippine Army 3rd ID in Panay. Corpus initiated "Greening Panay," a project whose purported objective was to make verdant anew the denuded forests in the central part of the island. Contrary to what the Arroyo regime wants the public to believe, "Greening Panay" was a program that had more to do with counterinsurgency than reforestation. It was a multi-million peso project funded by the Asian Development Bank and administered by a consortium composed of the 3rd ID, the University of the Philippines-Paghidaet (an NGO), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the then Office of Southern Cultural Communities. Begun in the early 1990s in the Tumanduk areas of Capiz province, "Greening Panay" was headed by Corpus when he was still colonel and chief of the 3rd ID Civilian-Military Operations. According to plan, trees were to be planted in the 33,310-hectare Philippine Army 3rd ID reservation and training camp whose headquarters is at Camp Gen. Macario Peralta Jr. in Barangay Jaena Norte, Jamindan, Capiz. Encompassing 24 barrios in the towns of Jamindan and Tapaz, Capiz, the area comprised the ancestral land of the Tumanduk seized from them when it was transformed into an army reservation in 1965 under the regime of Gloria Arroyo's father Diosdado Macapagal. Corpus' "pilot area" was Barangay Agloloway in Jamindan, which was right beside the 3rd ID's camp. He formed a tree-planting cooperative in the barangay and solicited donations from its members supposedly to purchase a carabao with the help of the Philippine Army. This barrio also served as the nursery for "Greening Panay." Among others, Corpus asked the villagers to plant mahogany, which was classified as "fast-growing commercial timber." Plant mahogany and be a millionaire. To entice the people in the area into joining "Greening Panay," Corpus proclaimed that anyone who planted mahogany trees would definitely become a millionaire. It usually takes up to 25 years before mahogany trees could be harvested or felled. But Corpus claimed that even 15-year-old trees could be harvested. And when the trees grow tall enough, he added, the peasants could apply for bank loans and use the trees as collateral. There's nothing to it, said Corpus, because the peasants need only show the bank pictures of the mahogany trees that they had planted. The project allocated P20,000 to P30,000 per hectare for tree planting. Corpus, however, boasted that he could have the land planted for only P5,000 per hectare. What he said was true enough. Corpus did not pay the Tumanduk a single centavo for planting mahogany. According to a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the Philippine Army and the peasants, they would divide the income among themselves once the trees are sold. It was late in the game before Corpus' victims realized that one of "Greening Panay's" objectives was to deprive them of their lands. Slowly, they lost their farms. In the 15- to 25-year waiting period before they could harvest the trees, they had no other means of earning a living because they were threatened with eviction from the reservation if they did not plant mahogany. A number of them tried to apply for loans from banks. This was when they realized that Corpus had swindled them. They could not use the mahogany trees as collateral for one simple reason: they did not have titles to their lands. It was also at this point that they realized that it was not they, but Col. Victor Corpus, who became the millionaire. They found out that he had put up a business in Iloilo City and was likewise able to buy large tracts of land in Guimaras island where he had a mansion built. They also slowly realized that the large-scale cultivation of mahogany trees was destructive to the biodiversity of the remaining rainforest. The land had become acidic, killing off other tree species planted nearby. The land was also no longer arable. The Tumanduk take a stand. Corpus merely used the project as a cover for counterinsurgency. Through it, he was able to make the rounds of communities and call for village meetings where he tried to lead the people away from the path of revolution with the empty promise that they could escape poverty merely by planting mahogany. Not long after, the people discovered what "Greening Panay" was really all about. In 1995, the Tumanduk united and took a stand against it. Organizations of the Tumanduk people called on the villagers not to plant mahogany. The angry barriofolk uprooted and burned the mahogany seedlings. They launched protest actions, linked up with local governments, and sought the help of regional, national and international organizations. In the process, they were able to convince the Capiz Provincial Board to issue a resolution calling for the military's immediate withdrawal from the Tumanduk's lands. Sham reforestation, failed "counterinsurgency." What Gloria Arroyo so proudly cited as Corpus' successful reforestation project actually revolved around only three barrios within the army reservation�Agloloway in Jamindan and Daan Sur and Daan Norte in Tapaz�an area comprising around 1,000 hectares. Villagers in the 21 other barrios planted only a few trees next to their houses. No less than the "Greening Panay" consortium admitted the project 's failure in an assessment in 1997. The military has likewise admitted the project's failure to meet its objective of destroying the revolutionary armed movement in Panay. On the contrary, the movement has even grown stronger and expanded. When the Philippine Army saw that the people did not fall for "Greening Panay" and that their counterrevolutionary scheme proved ineffective, the military's support for Corpus' project slowly waned. Disputes between Corpus and then 3rd ID chief, Maj. Gen. Jose Lapus escalated not only due to "Greening Panay's" failure as a counterinsurgency tool. They also quarreled over the project's funds. General Lapus categorically declared the 3rd ID's non-recognition of its MOA with the barriofolk, claiming that it was a unilateral move on Corpus' part. Their bickering went all the way up to the Supreme Court. In 1998, the high court declared the MOA invalid. Corpus threw a fit and threatened to resign from the Philippine Army. But he didn't go through with it when Pres. Fidel Ramos promoted him to brigadier general and gave him another assignment outside the 3rd ID. Unfortunately, "Greening Panay's" funds vanished with Corpus and Lapus' departure from Panay. Until now, members of the tree-planting cooperative in Barangay Agloloway wait in vain for the carabao promised them by the swindler-general. 
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