by Miriam G. Desacada
Palompon Leyte–The two-day search and excavations at various locations inside Lot 5150 of DBSN Farms at Barangay San Joaquin in Palompon, Leyte failed to extract any evidences that the chicken breeder farm, owned by Mayor Ramon Oñate, have violated environmental laws as alleged by some personalities.
A Regional Trial Court branch in Tacloban City issued the search warrant upon petition of Regional Executive Director Lormelyn Claudio of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) of Region 8 with allegations that the poultry farm has been dumping hazardous wastes from chicken in violation of laws.
Escorted by operatives of the Leyte Police Provincial Office, the DENR-8 team, headed by Glenn Garciano of the agency’s Enforcement Division, served the warrant to DBSN.
Then, with the use of a backhoe—which use was not specified and directed by the court however—-excavated pre-selected and some randomly picked sites within the farm cordoned off by several armed uniformed men, lawyers of complainant, and some witnesses.
On January 19, the DENR excavated three pre-selected sites and, in the presence of Mayor Onate himself, his personnel and policemen of the town and province, collected water and soil samples supposedly for subsequent tests.
On January 21, or two days after, the DENR resumed its excavation, with some NBI men brought in to witness, of other sites stipulated in the court order. But there were other sites also dug up even if these were not stated in the warrant, according to lawyers of DBSN.
After the completion of excavating the sites, a sit-down discussion among DBSN men, DENR team, and law enforcers were conducted. The DENR team and the police left the farm and said no when asked if ever there will be a repeat of the search.
The DENR team added that, contrary to the allegations, they found nothing more from the dug up areas than chicken manure, plastic bottles, and empty cans, among usual trashes buried in areas outside of those specified in the warrant.
They added that nothing was found on the excavation site within the areas specified on the search warrant, but chicken manure, plastic bottles, and empty cans were found in areas outside the area cited on the search warrant.
Contrary to allegations, there were no chicken parts, chicken droppings, intestines, feathers, dead chickens, blue plastic drums, medicine bottles and plastic bags found, as specified in the search warrant, from the dug-up parts of the farm.
Futher, the court issued the search warrant on allegations that DBSN Farms’ poultry was constructed inside the Palompon Wastershed Forest Reserve (PWFR) under Presidential Proclamation 212, in violation of RA 11038 or the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System (E-NIPAS) Act of 2018.
Oňate, however, maintained that the poultry farm is not located in a protected area and there is no protected area declared by the government yet in Palompon. Even in the DENR website, the PWFR is not on the list of protected areas in the country, much less the region, said the mayor who owns DBSN Farms.
His lawyers said that, before the PWFR is classified a protected area, it must first pass the DENR’s Protected Area Sustainability Assessment (PASA). But coming up with a failed PASA rating, the DENR recommended the Disestablishment of PWFR as initial component of E-NIPAS and no longer a protected area. These, taken into consideration, DBSN’s poultry farm on Lot 5150 did not violate any provisions of the E-NIPAS Act, they said.
The DBSN also filed a motion last Jan. 16 to quash the search warrant and suppress any evidence obtained therein, claiming that there has been a misrepresentation by the DENR in the application for the search warrant in court. Its counsels added that there was no probable cause at all in issuing the warrant.
It was learned that last year, the court had issued a TRO against the conduct of excavations at the DBSN area based on Georgina Arevalos’s allegations that the farm had been made an open dump site of domestic and other hazardous wastes.
The allegations of Arevalo, a political rival of Oñate, followed after 4th District Representative Richard Gomez initiated a Congressional inquiry, allegedly due to residents’ complaints about the burying of solid and hazardous waste in the area. In wanting to produce evidences to the allegations, Arevalo and Gomez asked the DENR to implement the excavation.
Oñate however protested and obtained a TRO against the plan, contending that a search warrant or court order be taken first before any such activities be done on his farm, which is a private property. The court stopped DENR of its excavation plans until this month when a search warrant was finally issued.
Oñate yielded to the warrant, which was carried out by the DENR. He said that, after digging up 11 sites there were zero wastes related to his poultry dressing and breeder farms, debunking accusations that DBSN has been dumping hazardous wastes from its plants around its site. DENR only found cans and bottles, household wastes, which was however buried securely on the ground so as not to affect the residents, workers of the farm, said the mayor.
The excavations were “plain and simple fishing expedition” to pin him down and his farm, but they failed. The buried chicken manure serves as fertilizer also to the plants in the area and, as proof of no hazardous wastes, there has never been any cases of health issues among his workers who he built houses to live within the farm, said Oñate.
In a press conference later on, Phoebe Charisse Albaño, legal counsel of DBSN, highlighted the DENR’s failure to find evidences to the allegations of massive waste dumping in the farm. Many observers concluded that it is now clear that the accusations were completely baseless, not worthy of DENR’s action. —Miriam G. Desacada