BUTUAN CITY (MindaNews / 09 April) – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has cancelled its protected area agreement with the alleged cult Socorro Bayanihan Services Inc. (SBSI) in Socorro town, Siargao Island in Surigao del Norte.
Environment Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga announced the cancellation on Monday, April 8, saying that SBSI violated the terms and conditions of the agreement.
The deal between DENR and SBSI, which was signed on June 15, 2004 under Protected Area Community-Based Resource Management Agreement (PACBRMA) No. 74007, covered an area of 353 hectares located in Barangay Rizal-Sering, which is within the Siargao Island Protected Landscape and Seascape.
A PACBRMA is a 25-year agreement between the DENR and organized tenured migrant communities or interested indigenous groups to help manage protected areas.
Tenured migrants are individuals or families who have been living in the area for at least five years before it was proclaimed a protected area.
“We are actually trying to put an end to the abuses that have gone on for several years in this area. As many of you know, the intention of the PACBRMA is really to provide sustainable livelihoods to tenured migrants in the protected areas,” Loyzaga said during a press briefing.
Led by Jay Rence Quilario, alias Señor Aguila, SBSI had been the subject of a hearing by the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs in September 2023, regarding alleged qualified trafficking in persons, facilitation of child marriage, solemnization of child marriage, and child abuse charges.
Señor Aguila and 12 other members were arrested in November 2023 following a warrant issued by acting Presiding Judge Ambrosio Moleta of Regional Trial Court Branch 31 in Dapa town, for eight counts of qualified trafficking in persons under Republic Act 9208 or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003.
List of violations
In a written order, the DENR listed SBSI’s violations of the agreement, a result of investigations conducted last year.
The violations included the establishment of a settlement area in the PACBRMA area, establishment of checkpoints regulating the entry of non-members, failure to file or submit monthly, quarterly, or annual reports related to the implementation of the Community Resource Management Plan (CRMP), and construction of infrastructures/developments not included in the CRMP.
The illegal structures constructed and being developed are new access roads, a communal quadrangle with a basketball court, volleyball court, a stage with bleachers, a wave pool, recording studio, gymnasium/dome, and landscaping and monuments.
Upon cancellation, the Protected Area Superintendent was ordered to take immediate steps to rehabilitate the protected area.
Resettlement of IDPs
The order also directed SBSI members, whether tenured migrants or not, their families, representatives, and agents, to vacate the protected area, “self-demolish their houses, and harvest their crops within a reasonable period of time upon consultation with the concerned agencies for their proper and safe relocations and re-integration.”
“The whole idea of our approach is to be as humane and peaceful in terms of this process. That’s why it took a while because we wanted to be sure that there were options available especially for peaceful resettlement,” Loyzaga said.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development Caraga (DSWD Caraga) stated on its Facebook post on April 8 that the agency is in continuous dialogue and coordination with Surigao del Norte Governor Robert Lyndon Barbers and other local officials for the “Reintegration Plan for the Internally Displaced Persons of SBSI.”
“The reintegration plan aims to provide sustainable solutions for the displaced residents, ensuring their smooth transition back to their communities,” the DSWD Caraga said. (Ivy Marie Mangadlao / MindaNews)
