Politics amid the tragedy

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Politics amid the tragedy
Sunday, 12 12, 2004

We help ourselves to what we want - and then God sends us a statement of account. Thus we reap the whirlwind when we sow the wind; we drown in floods when we rape the forests. The reprehensible part, however, is when we do not want to pay the bill, to acknowledge the account. With righteous indignation we point the finger to someone else. Or let the public sort out the needy from the greedy.

We saw this scenario unfold in the aftermath of the Ormoc tragedy in 1991. Now comes Dingalan in the province of Aurora, following the devastation wrought by Typhoon Winnie. And it seems that the accusing finger is now pointed at Sen. Edgardo Angara, his son Rep. Sonny Angara, and his sister Gov. Bella Angara-Castillo as being responsible for the denudation of the forests of Dingalan. Are the Angaras really to blame?

Unwittingly, a priest turned out to be the main scenarist of this calumny when he was misquoted as identifying the Angaras as supporters of logging operations in Aurora. Then that slippery NPA chieftain, Ka Roger, echoed the misquote, which was gleefully picked up by people of malicious dispositions. Text messages dripping with venom and animosity - sourced from cellphone numbers 09273070170 and 09267457278 - then circulated with impunity, and tabloids and broadsheets in choreographed press releases feasted on the misquote. A lady writer who revels in her reports about her intimate brushes with the glitterati of society and the government of the day, maliciously rode on the canard. Then a disgruntled former cabinet secretary, who has an axe to grind against Sen. Angara, joined the character assassins and gleefully contributed a few whacks of his own.

So how does one extricate oneself from this web of instant vilification? How does one get back at bastards out there in the anonymous hyperspace, those cowardly members of a syndicated hate brigade?

The book Power from the Forest: The Politics of Logging by Marites Dañguilan Vitug may provide the answers. On pages 213 to 215 of the book, Vitug enumerates those who could be responsible for the tragedy in Dingalan. And here’s the rub: the Angaras are nowhere in the list, which Vitug diligently derived from records of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), as well as from her own investigations in the field.

In the book is a statement of Vitug that confirms what residents of forest communities have known all along but were too battered in spirit to protest against: “… several forces have contributed to deforestation: government, through the absence of a coherent forest protection policy, use of the TLA as a tool of political patronage and weak law enforcement; private concessionaires, through violation of forestry laws; politicians, by pushing for the interests of timber concessionaires at the expense of forest protection; military officers, through the road-right-of-way racket, illegal logging and by using their influence to protect illegal loggers. Indirectly, the New People’s Army has contributed to the denudation of forests. They profited from logging concessionaires instead of defending the forests.”

To be sure, as there are crocodiles in the swamp, there are loggers in Congress. Chapter 5 of Vitug’s book makes spellbinding reading as she identifies them one by one. There is no mention, however, of a single Angara.

The Record of the Senate bolster the case for Sen. Angara. In the deliberations on the logging ban bill, the consistent declarations of Sen. Angara on his concern for the environment provide clear evidence that he would not allow the blood of innocent victims to taint his hands. Sen. Angara supported the total log ban bill in the Eighth Congress, and then again in the Ninth Congress. On page 585 of the Senate Record of May 18, 1993, part of the explanation of his affirmative vote runs thus: “We can no longer ignore the consequences of forest denudation. All of us are aware of the last tragedy that was Ormoc. Neither should we always suffer floods every rainy season. Our forest cover is the source of life and habitats to many species. The destruction of our forests means the extinction of many plants and animals. Our country can no longer afford another environmental disaster.” So there.

Logically and with great outrage, the residents and officials of Dingalan should be the first to denounce the Angaras, if indeed the latter are involved in logging. The Dingalan townsfolk have not done so; they have not cried out, because they know the Angaras have been consistently on the side of the environment. They know the Angaras are actively involved in the re-greening of the countryside in partnership with NGOs, to whom a big chunk of their PDAF has gone to efforts such as coastal and forest resources protection programs. They know Sen. Angara has been constantly badgering the CENROs in Aurora to strictly monitor the forest areas against illegal loggers. They know his intervention resulted in the suspension by then DENR Secretary Gozun of the IFMA of one concessionaire in Aurora, Toplite Lumber, Inc..

The truth is slowly unraveling. The forests of Dingalan are being logged under concession agreements concluded by the DENR with four companies, led by Green Circle Properties & Resources, Inc. and Inter-Pacific Forest Resources Corporation. It would be interesting to know who the owners are of these companies. And DENR Secretary Mike Defensor has declared the Angaras innocent of the malicious imputation against them.

A considerable quantity of lies has been spread to contaminate the Angaras with the responsibility for the Dingalan tragedy. It is a rotten, outright political demolition job, if you ask me. I am sure the Angaras know from whom this filth is coming from, but would not denounce them this emergent time while the nation is pulling together to help the victims in Dingalan. There is a forthcoming hearing in Congress, and that might as well be the opportune time to unmask those who are making political capital out of this latest national sorrow.

The politics that tragedies nurture are abhorrent, and contribute nothing to the efforts at stemming other disasters in the future, whether man-made or natural. In Ormoc in 1991, so much saliva was wasted to pillory politicians in that city. Everyone but the real culprit was fingered. Nobody was hauled to jail. Nothing was proved.

Hopefully, Sen. Angara’s proposed Senate Resolution No. 141, to investigate the causes of the devastation of the provinces of Aurora and Quezon, will unmask the real culprits.

Meantime, the relief work goes on. And it is sad to realize that in this country it takes very little to relieve the distressed and the needy - and never enough to sate the desires of the powerful and the greedy.


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