Office of Anakpawis Representative
Crispin B. Beltran

NEWS RELEASE
February 20, 2006

Southern Leyte, Zamboanga landslides were all preventable tragedies, Rep. Beltran says

Solon hits former DENR Sec. Defensor, says masses suffer most from gov't tolerance of logging, mining

Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran today expressed "deepest sympathy with the victims on this tragedy of gigantic proportions," saying that "the deadly landslides that ravaged St. Bernard in Southern Leyte and Depore in Zamboanga del Sur were all preventable tragedies that occurred due to the Arroyo administration's unrestricted tolerance of logging and mining operations and its neglect of effective disaster-prevention systems."

"The toiling masses are the first to suffer and the most badly hit whenever natural disasters, related directly or indirectly to destructive logging and mining operations, strike. This is doubly tragic because it is usually the government, and not the toiling masses, who are promoting and tolerating such operations in the first place. In fact, they [the masses] are the ones who are at the forefront of condemning and rejecting such operations," Beltran observed.

Beltran expressed alarm at the reports from environmental groups that the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) had already come up with a landslide susceptibility map as early as 2004 but nothing was done to relay the information to local government units (LGUs).

"What were officials such as the former DENR Secretary Michael Defensor doing all the while? Was he too busy concocting recipes for Pres. Arroyo's political preservation and approving hundreds of environmental compliance certificates or ECCs to foreign mining and logging corporations?" he asked.

"Why was there a severe lack of massive reforestation program and disaster response system given the MGB data? Why was a only measly 0.1 percent of national budget allotted to calamity funds when all the signs of impending tragedies were in place?" he asked.

Beltran said that "past and present administrations have done virtually nothing to reverse the environmental effects of rampant logging in the forests and mountainous areas of Southern Leyte since the 1970s, which have made the province vulnerable to landslides such as the Ormoc tragedy of 1991. Even Mindanao and Luzon has not been spared from tragedies directly related to logging, such as the massive landslides and flash floods in Aurora and Quezon that was blamed on logging in the Sierra Madre mountain range. We all know that unabated logging and mining," he said.

"Given these historical precedents, the St. Bernard landslide is a tragedy that we can not solely attribute to the random wrath of Mother Nature alone, nor on the increased volume of rainfall. The government's consistent lack of decisive disaster-preparedness systems and failure to implement log and mining bans and regulations also have to be taken into account," Beltran said.

Beltran added that the Zamboanga landslide was also "tragic but not surprising, since the Arroyo administration has really not been decisive in curbing environmental destruction in Mindanao. In fact, if we recall, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself personally announced the lifting of the total log ban in Mindanao in March 2005, authorizing Sec. Defensor to allow legal logging in several regions," he said.

He said that Anakpawis' regional chapters are currently soliciting goods to contribute to the relief operations.

Reference:
Rep. Crispin Beltran
Lisa C. Ito, Public Information Officer (+63) 927-796-7006
Email: crispinbeltran@gmail.com
URL: www.geocities.com/ap_news