Hold the Reactionary Government Accountable for the Large-Scale Destruction of the Storm on the People and the Environment

Salvador del Pueblo
Tagapagpahayag
National Democratic Front
Northeastern Luzon
December 15, 2004

The Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) must be held accountable for the large-scale destruction that the people have sustained as a result of the unrestrained assault on the environment by the big local and foreign loggers.

As early as the time of American colonialism, the American imperialists, rotten politicians and personnel of the republic subservient to the US, had already begun plundering the natural wealth of our country.

The statement of the president of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) that seeks to blame the New People's Army (NPA) for the crime of logging is a big lie and sheer cowardice. Without the revolutionary movement to obstruct the imperialists' and local ruling classes' plunder of the environment, an even bigger calamity would have long descended on the lives and property of the people.

The CPP-NPA-NDF maintains a class policy to safeguard the environment. It has taken the stand that the forests and the environment must principally serve the interests of the people. It defends and safeguards the environment in consideration to the welfare, needs, safety and future of the present and succeeding generations of the masses of the people.

It completely bans and punishes the corporate logging of the foreign capitalists, comprador-big bourgeoisie and the bureaucrat capitalists in areas where the Party, People's Army and the People's Democratic Government already has reached adequate strength to carry out its policies.

It recognizes the right of the masses to benefit from the country's natural resources. This right bears with it the corresponding responsibility to propagate education among the masses in protecting the environment in order to serve their interests and those of succeeding generations. It sees to it that the logging of the masses is controlled so that they do not depend on collecting firewood as a means of livelihood.

In accordance with this, the only means allowed are the judicious use of natural wood for households of the people in the areas and for the emergency (for instance, medical) needs of the community and for the people's needs to construct bridges, schools and clinics. All of them require the permission of the organs of political power which have jurisdiction over the areas.

This very policy is the complete opposite of the policy of the reactionary government. The latter opens up the forests for large-scale logging, and recently, for the unrestrained mining of the foreign imperialists and comprador-big bourgeoisie, which would surely bring unprecedented danger to the people.

The GRP is the one that has allowed logging through Timber License Agreements in hundreds of thousands of hectares of forestry in the Sierra Madre and other forests of the country brought within the scope of local and foreign concessionaires in collusion with big politicians like the Dy Dynasty. The GRP is the one providing protection to the loggers despite their outright exploitation and violation of the limits of their concessions.

The big logging companies allowed by the reactionary government are the ones notoriously destroying thousands of hectares of forestry in the Sierra Madre Mountains.

The loggers and protectors of the logging companies in the Cagayan Valley are Juan Ponce Enrile, former President Fidel Ramos, Junie Cua and the Dy dynasty. The Pacific Timber Exporters Corporation (PATECO), which is presently going all-out to denude and destroy the Sierra Madre forestry, is owned by the Dy dynasty. The latter has permission from the government to log until the year 2007.

Because of large-scale logging and mining, the environment is brought to the brink of disaster and the life and future of the people is seriously affected. In truth, the denudation of the forestry is one of the principal causes of the calamities that are now ravaging whole communities and the agricultural production, like frequent floods, extended periods of drought, mountain slides, and the drying up of streams and rivers.

The storm Harurot wrought damages worth almost a billion pesos in the plains of Cagayan Valley in the past year 2003 because of the extensive flood due to the sudden water release by the Magat River Irrigation Project. The storm Igme created havoc worth millions because of flashfloods and mountain slides in the Sierra Madre this July. The successive storms Igme, Unding, Winnie and Yoyong also brought about damages worth almost a billion because of deluges from the denuded mountains and the water releases of the dams without notification.

The regime's prodding to open and set up mines all over the country also threatens more deluges for the people. In Cagayan Valley, the ARIMCO mining in Quirino and Nueva Vizcaya, and the coal mining project of the PNOC and its foreign principals in the forest regions of the towns of Cauayan, Naguilian and Benito Soliven, will now proceed smoothly. The large-scale grabbing of farm lands and the extensive destruction of the environment would now be a certainty. The lignite that will be mined is the dirtiest carbon grade in the world, and it will surely poison the land, the waterways and the wide expanse.

Unbeknownst to all, the regular soldiers of the AFP, CAFGU and goons also use big loggers for their own protection. Every year since the '70's, they give commissions to the leadership of the 5th ID based in the Cagayan Valley and the 7th ID based in Central Luzon.

Aside from receiving commissions from logging, the AFP itself is also involved in illegal logging in Maconacon, in Dinapigue, in Masipi, Cabagan, in San Mariano in the province of Isabela; in Rizal, Lasam, Piat, Sto. Ni�o and Baggao in the province of Cagayan; and in Marag Valley in the province of Apayao. In truth, what the AFP commanders and their most favored personnel draw as salaries are just a pittance compared to what the payola they pocket from legal and illegal logging and from supposed logging "busts."

On the other hand, the NPA implements serious punitive actions in order to halt their operations eventually, in accordance with the revolutionary principle of safeguarding the environment and the welfare of the people.

It has successfully halted logging in the province of Cagayan through a combination of a powerful mass movement and the decisive military actions of the NPA. The operations of Marcos cronies like Alfonso Lim and Enrile who control the exploitation of the forestry of Marag and the surrounding areas which encompassed hundreds of thousands of hectares of the forests of Apayao were stopped when they sustained the biggest damage in their machinery during the '70's and '80's. The Liberty Logging Corporation was completely stopped when all of its machinery was burned down in Jones, Isabela in September 2000. And PATECO, likewise, was halted when the NPA razed 20 of its logging trucks full of logs and two bulldozers and others on December 7, 2003.

Only the revolutionary movement has the firm political stand to implement the stopping of destructive and unrestrained logging and mining in the forestry. Its constant responsibility is to safeguard the environment for the benefit, welfare and future of the broader masses of the present and succeeding generations. Only the revolutionary movement, not the GRP, has the noble motive for ensuring this objective.

Logging and mining bring about destruction, not development; further immiseration, not upliftment in livelihood. Government representatives and logging concessionaires unite with the aim of deceiving when they say that corporate (or legal) logging and mining supposedly do not bring about destruction; on the contrary, they would even be able to safeguard the environment and bring about paved roads, jobs, reforestation and other idiotic promises. They have already promised these things for decades when they began denuding the forests in the areas.

Amidst the destruction and calamity, the CPP-NPA-NDF Cagayan Valley calls on the revolutionary forces and the people to grasp the following:

Operationalize the established revolutionary mass organizations and organs of political power in the barrios and outlying areas in order to ensure the implementation of the regulations and laws of the People's Democratic Government in safeguarding the environment;
Reach the broadest number of people, form organizations and alliances. Launch education and propaganda campaigns, and mobilize for the benefit of the people and for safeguarding the environment;
Carry out and contribute in providing assistance and rehabilitation in production, housing and barrio infrastructure, and other forms of assistance to victims;
Carry out people's democracy in promulgating and implementing regulations in securing firewood for barrio folk and people in outlying areas, cultivating in uma (fallow) and kaingin (clear-cut) areas, taking care of streams, springs and other forms of environmental protection;
Launch organized and planned planting of trees especially in watershed areas;
Oppose and prevent the plunderous and destructive mining, coal mining projects and other similar projects;
Expose and hold the regime accountable for the lack of relief for the victims of the calamities;
Never allow a repeat of Ormoc, Aurora and Quezon in Cagayan Valley! Expose and oppose corporate logging!

Let us hold the present regime, now represented by President Macapagal-Arroyo, accountable for the present poverty and destruction of life, farm lands, property and entire communities being experienced by the people! #

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