The confirmation of Ramon Paje, the boss at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, who has already attained celebrity status because of the several “bypasses” by the bicameral Commission on Appointments, is generating more opposition.
Lately, for instance, Antonio Cerilles, the DENR secretary during the time of the man named Band…Wrist Band…and now the governor of Zamboanga del Sur, came forward to oppose Paje’s confirmation because of “incompetence.”
From what I have gathered, Cerilles already officially wrote Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, simply known as JPE, who is also CA chair. Cerilles even underscored the word “incompetence,” aside from putting it in bold capital letters.
Word has it that Cerilles came to Metro Manila to personally talk to the CA members regarding his strong opposition to Paje’s confirmation.
As we all know, Cerilles is also a former legislator.
Actually, Cerilles is harping on the controversy over the permit issued by the DENR to a mining company called Lupa Pigegetawan, which mysteriously secured a “special” permit in the mineral-rich town of Bayog in Zamboanga del Sur.
The permit even has this impressive sounding name: “special ore extraction permit,” or SOEP, which the DENR issued during the cute administration of Gloriaetta, under DENR boss Lito Atienza, the former mayor of Manila.
Here is the thing: the permit called SOEP does not appear, even just in passing, in any mining law in this country.
Thus, some syndicate in DENR seems to have granted Lupa Pigegetawan a big favor, and if you believe the story of Cerilles, Paje actually was part of it, either because of “incompetence” or other multimillion reasons.
On the Lupa Pigegetawan issue, Cerilles ironically found an ally in another Cabinet member, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, who destroyed Paje’s reasons for his supporting the strange SOEP.
Word has it, by the way, that Paje was never part of the original team of our leader Benigno Simeon, aka BS. It is said that Paje rose from the ranks at the DENR, having hit the mother lode only during the cute administration of Gloriaetta, particularly during the successive terms of two well-known loyalists of Gloriaetta, namely former DENR chiefs Atienza and Michael Defensor.
Paje then worked his way into the Aquino (Part II) administration, aligning himself with the “Samar” group, with the help of his known ties with a politically active religious group.
Anyway, the mining company Lupa Pigegetawan claimed that it enjoyed the support of indigenous people in Zamboanga del Sur.
It was the line, according to media reports, that Paje also used to defend the DENR’s issuance of the special permit, complete with all the PR special effects.
But then Cerilles claimed in his letter to JPE that indigenous groups had nothing to do with the mining company.
In fact, only one individual, named Manuel Go, who is based in Cebu and not even in Zamboanga del Sur, controls 99 percent of the company.
And so the well-oiled PR machinery of Paje subsequently changed its tune and laid the blame squarely on his former boss, saying that the DENR issued the questionable permit during the time of Atienza.
Well and good—but Cerilles also revealed that he had informed Paje about the brewing tension in the mining communities in his province over the operations of Lupa Pigegetawan—not only once, but twice.
According to Cerilles, Paje was already the acting DENR secretary when Cerilles brought up the issue.
For whatever reason, Paje ignored the concerns aired by Cerilles on both occasions, which Cerilles noted should have given Paje enough time and reason to correct the faulty issuance of the special permit.
Instead, Paje even defended it.
Also, when Atienza was DENR head, Paje held advantageous positions in the department—for instance as Atienza’s top adviser on mining.
Do you mean to tell the guys down here in my barangay that Paje did not give his boss the correct advice on such a highly questionable act as inventing a special permit for a mining company owned by a single individual who was even an outsider in the town?
It seems that Paje’s spirited defense of Lupa Pigegetawan does not make him, ah, “uninvolved” in the controversial special permit, as his PR machinery claims.
Look, boss, our beloved DENR chief even gave a circuitous explanation of the special permit, when in a letter in August last year he even asked the Department of Justice for an opinion on its legality.
He claimed then that the law did not prohibit the DENR secretary from issuing such a special permit as the SOEP. You know—too much ado about nothing!
But then DOJ head De Lima destroyed Paje’s argument.
Sure, according to De Lima, the law did not expressly prohibit the DENR chief from issuing the permit, but the DENR chief could only do so with the verification and evaluation of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, or the MGB, because the MGB director was in the best position to determine whether the applicant (i.e. Lupa Pigegetawan) followed all legal requirements.
According to De Lima, Lupa Pigegetawan failed to obtain the necessary permits to conduct mining activities in Bayog (Zamboanga del Sur) as required under the law.
You know—the special permit had special defects after all. And so the DOJ said that the permit was “invalid.”
Yet his PR machinery said that Paje had no involvement whatsoever in the grant of the special favor to the company. So be it.
It is just that Paje was, ah, soooo freaking obstinate in his defense of the company, which, by the way, has been raking millions upon millions of pesos.
It makes us wonder why he could not just simply cancel the permit.
Recently, the DENR announced its “accomplishments” under Paje, such as the removal of allegedly corrupt employees or the grade of positive “1” that the department obtained in the SWS survey. Come on—positive “1?”
The PR campaign perhaps aimed to neutralize the letter sent by a group of DENR employees—who refused to reveal their names—to CA members such as Senator Serge Osmeña, revealing the land deals of the DENR under Paje.
These employees claimed that these deals were not exactly advantageous to the government.
These supposed deals involved the DENR property at Fort Bonifacio, which was reportedly pegged at P12,000 per square meter as against the assessed value of P40,000 per, and the award of 25-year leases in Busuanga Island (Palawan), which has been declared a conservation area.
Now, the DENR employees union also supposedly denied that it had filed a complaint with the Ombudsman against Paje, saying that the union board had the sole authority to issue statements.
Here is the thing: the supposed press statement of the union actually came from the Public Affairs Office of the DENR, acting as the PR arm of Paje.
How could our leader BS stomach this guy?