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ENVIRONMENT Secretary Lito Atienza has ordered a review
of six lease agreements covering some 3,000 hectares of
lands in Bukidnon for alleged violations of the terms
and conditions set forth in the Forest Land Grazing
Lease Agreements (FLGLAs).
Some of
the lands were leased out by the government for purpose
of food production, particularly livestock. However,
instead of raising cattle and goat, those with lease
agreement allegedly used the vast tracts of land for
sugar cane, cassava and pineapple plantations.
Among
the lease agreements Atienza wanted reviewed are the
820-hectare Ocaya Ranch in Maramag, Bukidnon, (FLGLA
333); the 420-hectare Villalon Ranch (FLGLA 1816);
472-hectare Alan Uy Ranch (FLGLA 336); 456-hectare Felix
Manzano Ranch, all in Maramag, Bukidnon (FLGLA
2005-001); 958-hectare ranch of the Kiantig Development
Corp., formerly Cesar M. Fortich Ranch (FLGLA 122) in
Quezon, Bukidnon; 277-hectare Michael Fortich Ranch also
in Quezon, Bukidnon (FLGLA 285).
Atienza
issued the directive after a meeting with leaders of
several groups based in Bukidnon who set up camp at the
DENR office to ask for the cancellation of the lease
agreements, which they said were awarded to Bukidnon’s
“rich and famous.”
The
protesters, who belong to the Alliance of Landless
Farmers and Rural Poor in Bukidnon, an ally of the
agrarian-reform people’s organization Task Force Mapalad,
is asking the DENR to award community-based forest
management agreements with landless farmers.
Atienza
wants Region 10 (Northern Mindanao) executive director
Maximo Dichoso to conduct biophysical assessment to
verify the complaint of understock and illegal
conversion of lands and submit a recommendation to his
office. |
