DENR cancels protected area agreement with SBSI

THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) issued a cancellation order on the Protected Area Community-Based Resource Management Agreement (PACBRMA) of the Socorro Bayanihan Services Inc. (SBSI) in Socorro town, Surigao del Norte for violating provisions of the said agreement.

On April 4, 2024, Environment Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga served the annulment order on the agreement signed by the DENR with SBSI, citing violations that included establishment of permanent structures in the protected area.

The structures include settlement/residence, new access roads, communal quadrangle with a basketball court, volleyball court, and a stage with bleacher, wave pool, recording studio, radio station, gymnasium/dome, landscaping, monuments and implementing checkpoints strictly regulating the entry of nonmembers.

The DENR also said that the civic organization failed to submit the required monthly, quarterly, or annual reports about the implementation of its Community-Based Resource Management Plan (CRMP).

«Today, we are actually trying to put an end and have 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 conference on Monday.

The DENR also instructed the residents to self-demolish their houses and to harvest their crops within a reasonable amount of time upon the cancellation of the agreement.

The environment chief noted that the case of Socorro is not a simple one and the process is also not simple in terms of dealing with the violations.

«In this case, as per the Senate investigation, we have heard allegations of criminal activities of psychosocial and physical abuse, and allegations also of indoctrination and other types of activities, which run counter, obviously, to the social and, eventually, to the ecological environmental purposes of the PACBRMA,» she said.

In terms of resettlement, Loyzaga said that they have been strategizing with concerned agencies to do it as humanely as possible.

«To the community members residing in the lower areas,