SBMA, DENR tiff over custody of logs from wind farm site

January 2, 2016January 29, 2016 Vic Vizcocho 0 Comments

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) law enforcers recently apprehended eight dump trucks and seized around 50 logs cut from the Subic Freeport’s forested area ear-marked for the construction of a $200 M renewable energy facility.

SBMA Chairman Roberto V. Garcia said the logs are SBMA property and, therefore, should be the primary beneficiary.

LED said the trucking company used in the attempt to spirit-out the logs from the freeport failed to show a tansport permit.

_DSC0282 — HOT LOGS. Some of the eight (8) high-sided dump trucks with cut timber on board at the SBMA LED parking lot after LED personnel stopped the attempt to spirit out of the Subic Freeport around 50 cut timber from the Jobin-SQM Inc. Solar Project. SBMA evertually released the dump trucks and timber after a brief tussle on rights and ownership. SubicBayNewsExcusive photos by Vic V. Vizcocho, Jr.

However, Marife Castillo, Olongapo Community Environment and Natural Resources Officer (CENRO), asked the SBMA to release the logs to DENR for safekeeping.

She said the cutting permit issued to the solar firm Jobin-SQM Inc. “indicated” that the DENR would have custody of the logs.

Garcia has agreed to release the logs on condition that the same will be returned to the freeport for the benefit of the Aetas.

Jobin-SQM Inc. is constructing a $200-million renewable energy facility in an 800-hectare lot within the Aeta ancestral domain that would produce 150 megawatts of combined solar and wind energy.