by Miriam G. Desacada
Tacloban City–Palompon (Leyte) Mayor Ramon Oñate, coming off what he described as a disappointing experience in a House committee inquiry end of May, assailed the unjust demeanor of Representative Richard Gomez (4th district, Leyte) in accusing and convicting him outright as a violator of environmental laws.
”Let’s be fair. I am appealing to all open-minded citizens. Let’s not succumb to the allegations of Gomez. This is pure and simple political harassment, which actually began from 2019 until now,” Oñate said, adding that it is still too early for politicking.
“I am the only mayor in the district who supported him for Congress before. We were together for nine years during my time as mayor but then when a new mayor came and I was just the vice mayor, he might had perceived the new one was a better ally for him than me,” he recalled the good alliance they had before.
Oñate wondered what could be behind the new Gomez in hitting him with wild accusations, but some reliable sources hinted that Gomez perhaps saw him as a threat for reelection in 2025.
“It’s still two years before elections, and I am not interested in running for Congress, but if he is interested in running for mayor of Palompon, so be it. I am not questioning the congressional inquiry but I am questioning the motive of Gomez,” said Oñate, hinting that the congressman was just using the House committee on natural resources as a venue to attack him.
Natural resources committee chairperson Elpidio Barzaga Jr (4th dist., Cavite), was unable to contain the high-handed accusations of the Leyte congressman, and decided later to order instead Mayor Oñate and the DENR officials to submit their respective answers to the Gomez allegations within 30 days from that hearing date.
Gomez started the proceedings with a Powerpoint presentation on Palompon map to emphasize that the area where Oñate’s chicken breeding farm structures was a forest or timberland, which should not have been issued a title. He then turned the blame on the DENR people for illegally issuing a title to a property that is timberland in nature and within a protected area.
“It can be done only when the timberland is declared as an alienable and diposable land (ADL),” said Gomez, accusing the DENR of maneuverings with the mayor by skirting the law and issuing a title. The congressman was trying to establish that there was connivance and that Oñate’s farm was sitting illegally on a “titled” forest.
DENR officials agreed that the 3.5-hectare Oñate’s farm is a timberland and should not have been issued a title yet, that’s why the agency’s legal officer said they are going to file in court for a reversal of the title. Yet Gomez was not appeased, insisting that the DENR people committed an illegal act and that he is asking the DENR Secretary to transfer these personnel to other regions.
Oñate however said that if he was issued a clean title for the property in question, he should not be blamed because everything underwent a process, with him complying with the requirements.
“If the land was titled, then it is not a timberland. It was not my fault to get the title. Do not accuse me of wrongdoing. This land even has a tax declaration since 1964,” said the mayor. “It passed from one owner to another until it became mine and I had it applied for a title, which was issued eventually,” he said. “Besides, it is located along the highway, next to other titled lots with a number of houses and residents,” he added.
“The allegation of illegal occupation of a forest land is not true because the barangays where these forest lands are located have been in existence long before the area was declared as forest land,” said Oñate in a press con with local media the day after the House inquiry.
Oñate further decried additional allegations of Gomez when the latter turned to his DBSN Chicken Dressing Plant in Albuera town, adjacent to Ormoc City, and 50 kilometers away from Palompon. He said he was invited as a resource person for the continuation of the House inquiry, explicitly in aid of legislation, and only about the lot in Palompon town.
Gomez filed House Resolution 778 urging the House panel to conduct an inquiry into the “gaps and inconsistenciesof land use, environmental management laws, misuse and abuse of natural resources resulting in soil, water and air pollution over forestlands, watersheds and buffer zones “in the municipality of Palompon, province of Leyte.”
The inquiry was explicitly labelled as “in aid of legislation” but Oñate said Gomez apparently had other agenda, and went further by including his business in Albuera town with the obvious purpose of having it closed even if it was not part of the resolution.
In the title of his resolution, the subject area of the inquiry was only the town of Palompon, but then during the course of the proceedings Gomez shifted his focus and pounced on the mayor’s chicken dressing business in Albuera town about 50 kilometers apart with Ormoc City in between.
In an apparent plan to pin down DBSN on environmental laws violations, Gomez came in prepared with a video recording on the findings of a group of bio experts from the University of Santo Tomas as readied evidences to trounce the mayor’s business as the ultimate source of pollution from the midstream of a river in Albuera to its downstream and to Ormoc Bay.
A barrister and former mediaman, who once was a staff of a Mindanao congressman, commented that the House inquiry was no longer in aid of legislation but was transformed into a court trial where evidences were presented to convict the accused.
Gomez’ ulterior motives became evident when, after presenting his evidences, he blurted multiple penalties he wanted the committee to impose against Oñate: revocation of DBSN’s environmental compliance certificate (ECC); padlock the business; prosecute Onate as a violator of law, remove him from office and ban him from being elected into office again.
The observer said this can only be done in judicial proceedings. Gomez even wanted the LandBank to file a case of estafa against Onate for presenting as collateral the lot in Palompon, which he claimed to have a dubious title due to its being a timberland.
“Gomez acted as if the House has the police power to close an erring business of an area, and the judicial power to issue judgment that a certain business committed violations of laws. He became the prosecution, the judge and the penal enforcer,” this resident of Ormoc said after watching the committee hearing on Facebook live with his friends in the local media.
Oñate categorically denied DBSN’s alleged violations of law. DBSN was established in 2015 and has a daily capacity of 55,000 chicken heads. In the earlier stage of the business, he admitted the business was fined for various environmental violations but he said he paid the penalties and all of it were already corrected.
An official of the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) said the agency has no basis now to cancel the ECC and close the business. DBSN has the biggest and the best waste treatment plant in the region, that converts waste, chicken entrails and feathers into animal feeds.
“The numerous chicken dressing establishments right inside Ormoc City should be the one to be investigated and penalized instead. These are the ones polluting the creeks and rivers of the city,” Onate added.
Regarding use of land in protected areas, DENR and EMB officials cited instead the Ormoc City’s 150 -hectare Mega Township project constructed inside the 200-hectare Barangay Naungan Mangrove EcoPark, which is a protected area. —Miriam G. Desacada