Journalists who cover areas of conflict are understandably exposed to risks on their personal security. We trust that government authorities are exhausting all possible means to ensure the safety of these journalists.

By Conrado Banal III
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:57:00 06/10/2008

Rumor has it that the grandma at the Palace recently paid a very special visit to a rich nickel mine site in Palawan province, southwest of Manila.

If it is true, Palace watchers in business say the Grandma must be working on something.

Supposedly, the mine site was Rio Tuba, owned by the Zamora brothers, mainly by Buddy Zamora.

Playing host to the Grandma in her visit to the mine site, according to the story, was one of the Zamora brothers, Manny.

World prices of nickel have gone up to the stratosphere in recent years, and talk in business is that the Zamoras’ Rio Tuba has made tens of billions of pesos in profits.

In other words, the Zamora group is loaded. Yet, we are not seeing some big investments from it.

One of the brothers, Ronnie, who is the congressman from San Juan City, was the executive secretary of the man named Band… Wrist Band. Remember him? He was the man the Grandma replaced in the Palace back in 2001.

Anyway, it is widely known in business that the two other Zamora brothers, Buddy and Manny, are supporters of the Grandma.

But what is interesting in the Grandma’s visit to Rio Tuba mines was her company. It seems that, aside from First Gentleman Miguel Arroyo, the presidential party included Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile and partner.

Just what it was that brought the Grandma and Enrile in one visit to a far-flung place in Palawan, business wags just cannot figure out as yet.

Recently, however, the Grandma and Enrile took turns lambasting business groups over this king-sized headache of ours known as high electricity rates.

The Grandma started with the Lopez group (Manila Electric Co.), and just last week Enrile followed up with an attack on all foreign investors in this country, calling them “carpetbaggers.”

Definitely, something is up.

SAYING that the case was prematurely filed, the Court of Appeals (CA) has dismissed the petition filed by a group of taxpayers seeking to declare as unconstitutional Executive Order (EO) 683 allocating the P6-billion share of Palawan, from the Camago-Malampaya oil and natural gas project as part of the pork barrel of the governor and the two congressmen of the province.

In a seven-page decision penned by Associate Justice Rebecca de Guia-Salvador, the CA’s Eleventh Division also noted that the petition filed by Bishop Pedro Dulay Arigo, Cesar Sarino, Jose Antonio Socrates and lawyer Harry Roque is anchored on the same facts and issues raised in GR 170867, a petition for review pending before the Supreme Court.

The said petition for review seeks the reversal of the December 16, 2005, decision rendered by Branch 95 of the Regional Trial Court in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, declaring that the province of Palawan is entitled to 40-percent share of the national wealth, computed based on revenues generated from the Camago-Malampaya Natural Gas Project since October 16, 2001.

“Because the issue which inextricably links the instant petition and GR 170867 is whether the Camago-Malampaya natural gas reservoir is within the territorial jurisdiction of Palawan, forms part of the national territory of the Philippines, it would be premature for the court to rule on this case when GR 170867 is still up for adjudication before the Supreme Court,” the CA said.

Furthermore, the appellate court explained that the interim undertaking between the national government and the province of Palawan to grant the latter a 50-percent share of the disputed 40 percent from the proceeds of the Camago-Malampaya project under the terms of the Provisional Implementation Agreement (PIA) is dependent on the final resolution of GR 170867.

A ruling on the issue, according to the CA, would also be tantamount to a “collateral adjudication” of the archipelagic baseline considering the ongoing efforts of both the Legislative and Executive departments to arrive at a common position in redefining the country’s baseline in the light of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

“The task of defining the baseline involves policy determination, accordingly, ample opportunity must be accorded the Legislative and Executive departments to forge a policy concensus, and to implement them before the courts may intervene under the expanded concept of judicial power in Section 1, Article 8 of the Constitution,” the CA stressed.

The CA also dismissed the petition owing to the failure of the petitioners to attach relevant pleadings and other important documents to support the allegations of the petitions, such as a copy of the petition for review on certiorari in GR 170867, the PIA, and Service Contract (SC) 38.

In their petition, the petitioners asked the appellate court to nullify EO 683, titled “Authorizing the Use of Fees, Revenues and Receipts from Service Contract 38 for the Implementation of Development Projects for the People of Palawan” issued by President Arroyo on December 1, 2007.

Named respondents in the case were Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya, Palawan Gov. Joel Reyes, Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino Rep. Antonio Alvarez of Palawan, Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Abraham Mitra of Palawan and Rafael del Pilar, president and chief executive of the Philippine National Oil Co.,-Exploration Corp.

Records showed that the Department of Energy entered into a service contract with Shell Philippines Exploration BV and Occidental Philippines on December 11, 1990, for the exclusive contract of petroleum operations in the area.

The exploration led to the drilling of the Camago-Malampaya natural-gas reservoir located about 80 kilometers from the coastline of Palawan in the South China Sea with projected revenues of approximately $8 billion to $10 billion for the government.

But a dispute arose between the local and national government over the share of proceeds for the gas project.

The Palawan government had asserted its claim over a 40-percent share of the proceeds, based on the 1991 Local Government Code.

But the national government said Palawan’s claim was unfounded because the natural-gas reservoir is approximately 80 km from the coastline of Palawan and is thus outside its territorial jurisdiction.

Negotiations ensued resulting in the issuance of EO 683 with a PIA that would allow 50 percent of the disputed 40 percent in the net government share in the proceeds of SC 38 to be utilized for development projects in the province.

The suit seeks to prohibit the disbursement following the EO and urges the appellate court to “declare it illegal for being a violation of the Local Government Code and the 1987 Constitution and made in grave abuse of discretion amounting to a lack of jurisdiction.”

“In EO 683, what the government wants to do really is a realignment of funds, which is a violation of the Constitution. For in usual budgeting procedures of Congress, the share from the national wealth is included in the appropriation for ‘allocation to local governments’ which is classified as a mandatory obligation of the national government to the local government and automatically released to the local government in accordance with Section 29 of Republic Act 7160, otherwise known as the Local Government Code,” the petitioners said.

The petitioners noted that the PIA illegally grants the governor and the representatives from Palawan’s two congressional districts a huge pork barrel, which is larger than the allocation of pork barrel for all members of the House of Representatives’ appropriations.

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Philippines–Grandmaster Buenaventura “Bong” Villamayor drew his final round with National Master Emmanuel Senador Saturday afternoon to clinch the 7th Gov. Reyes Palawan Chess Open Tournament, his first major title after emerging from a five-year pedagogic stint in Singapore.

Reaching peak form following strong finishes in two consecutive international tournaments in Subic, Zambales, Villamayor turned back a posse of rated national players — including three international masters — to emerge undefeated in the 9-round tournament organized by the Palawan provincial government in celebration of its annual founding anniversary.

Villamayor showed fine form with his mastery of the open board by defeating International Master Richard Bitoon with black on a poisoned pawn variation of the French Defense last Thursday, where everyone had to play three consecutive rounds.

“It was tough having to play three games in one day,” Villamayor said after drawing with Senador. “I was tired but so was everyone else.”

National Master Rustum Tolentino, showing solid defensive abilities, drew with Villamayor in the penultimate round to maintain his momentum from the last two major international tournaments held in Subic last month to tie Villamayor’s score but settled for solo second in a tie break.

Sharing 3rd to 5th place were International Master Richard Bitoon, National Master Mirabeau Maga and Palawan-based National Master Allan Arinos.

Villamayor’s victory underscored his decision to accept Palawan’s invitation to man its top board in the forthcoming Inter-Province Chess Tournament to be held in Tandag City, Surigao in two weeks.

Garnering 9th–15th spots were Fide Master Roderick Nava, Jason Salubre, International Master Ronald Bancod, Anthony Lungcay, Roger Seratubias, Bocs Sumalapa and Mario Labagnis.

International Master Barlo Nadera settled for 16th place with untitled players Rey Reyes of Negros and locals Verth Alora, Julius Alatan, Mark Victor Quilinguen, Danny Cervantes and Robert Quiray.

The 9-round Swiss System tournament was sanctioned by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines and organized by the Palawan Provincial Sports Office headed by Sunshine R. Cabiguen.

Copyright 2008 Southern Luzon Bureau. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, June 5 (PNA) — To ensure that Palawan’s marine environment will be protected from fish stock depletion due to unbridled live and fresh fish trading activities, the Provincial Board (PB) has imposed stricter requirements on the business and is about to also impose a moratorium on it.

For live fish traders who are applying, the PB is now requiring them to deposit P100,000 in a trust fund and a certificate from a refutable bank for P50,000 to determine if they are capable of doing business and to avoid “fly-by-night” traders.

Board member Modesto Rodriguez II, chairperson of the PB Committee on Agriculture and Aquatic Resources, explained this to the local media after claiming he is being swamped with applications for live fish trading.

Rodriguez said that currently, the PB has already approved more or less 300 applications for live and fresh fish trading, and he is afraid that with this number, Palawan might suffer from over fishing.

As per report from the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development Staff (PCSDS), the board member said there is a big probability that there will be overfishing in the province because traders are shipping more than 147 tons of fish every year.

“For the meantime, we want to stop approving applications to give way to resolving the quota system,” he said.

Rodriguez disclosed further that there are traders who take advantage of getting applications because of the quota system. He found out that there are traders who have 10 applications for live fish trading, but only one actually owns the business.

If the quota system is not checked for loopholes, he said that an individual applicant can be awarded 10 endorsements, which is unfair to the others, considering that there are more than 300 of them applying.

It can be recalled that early this year, the PB was forced to identify a quota system on the tonnage of live fishes that can be shipped outside the province because of concern for fish stock depletion. (PNA)

One of the new exciting events highlighting the Baragatan Festival sa Palawan 2008, the Longest Seafood Grill is set on June 23 right after the Saraotan sa Dalan, the Cuyono phrase for street dancing.

It came with a photo release of government officials cooking reportedly 20 kilos of fish in open fire last Sunday during the annual festivities’ soft opening.

I must say I didn’t quite get the drift or the point of the exercise, which was apparently to imply that there is an abundance of fish in Palawan. Methinks the record that needs to be set clear, if anything, is that there is in fact a decline of fisheries and the ocean’s productivity because of a combination of factors including population and increased demand for food, and rampant destruction of coral reefs and fish habitat.

It used to be that Malampaya Sound in northern Palawan was supplying 60 percent of Manila’s fish consumption. Now there’s no more fishing going on there. Palawan’s fishing grounds, while still productive compared to most parts of the country, are under threat from cyanide and dynamite fishing.

Here’s an excerpt from a paper by Israel and Banzon:

While it is economically significant, the fisheries sector currently faces a serious problem that threatens its viability as economic base-overfishing (Silvestre and Pauly 1987; Dalzell et al. 1987; Trinidad et al. 1993; Padilla and De Guzman 1994). It has been argued that if the current rate of overfishing continues unabated, marine fisheries may collapse as important edible fish species virtually become extinct.

Still, the longest trivial pursuit that Palawan has set forth to achieve won’t be denied. Kudos to the organizers, who promised as follows:

For this Longest Seafood Grill event, the PEDCO shall prepare and set up the grills, the charcoals and a variety of seafoods. Eight tons of mouth-watering reef and deep-sea fish species such as blue marlin, grouper, sea bass, snapper, mackerel, big-eyed tuna, swordfish, squid, cuttlefish and octopus shall go into the grill. Crustaceans such as lobsters, crabs and seashells like green mussels and oysters are also in the menu. About 3,000 grillers are expected to man the charcoal-fired grills after which the sumptuous grilled items shall be shared and enjoyed by participants and sponsors with their families, friends and guests.

So okay, I won’t spoil the fun any further, and I’ll be there for the blue marlin! Bon appetite!

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Philippines — The Philippine National Police Mimaropa Regional Office Monday ordered the relief of the controversial police chief of Puerto Princesa City who has been facing several complaints of abuse of authority filed by local citizens.

PNP Mimaropa Regional Director Luisito Palmera arrived in the city on Saturday carrying the relief order of Superintendent Enrique Ancheta, according to Senior Superintendent Dennis Peña, Palawan provincial police director.

Ancheta, who took a leave of absence, was in Manila and was not available for comment.

City officials, on the other hand, were mum about Ancheta’s relief order and his replacement by an officer in charge, Superintendent Romy Estepa.

Ancheta was handpicked by Puerto Princesa City Mayor Edward Hagedorn to head the city police office in December last year.

Since his posting, Ancheta has racked up a string of criminal and administrative charges against him, including a rubout case filed recently by the National Bureau for Investigation (NBI) and a rape complaint filed by a male citizen, who claimed he was forced by Ancheta and his men to perform oral sex on a policeman during an investigation.

“It’s the image of the PNP organization that is at stake,” Peña said in Filipino, when asked if the provincial office will heed any request to extend Ancheta’s service.

The Mimaropa region is composed of the provinces of Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan.

Dr. Terry Aquino (center, standing), a local marine mammal specialist, estimates it is at least 60 years old and heavy with eggs.

Green sea turtles are classified as “endangered” species by the International Union for Conservation (IUCN). This momma was promptly tagged and released by the City’s Bantay Puerto team.