P200T BEING PROPOSED FOR VILLAGE CHIEF’S MURDER WITNESS	June 6, 2008

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya – The Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP or provincial board) here has proposed to fund a reward money for any witness who will identify the suspects in the killing of Didipio barangay chief Paulino Bauilat who was shot to death last May 29 at Sitio Pimmadek, near the site of the Didipio Gold and Copper project.

During a board's regular session Wednesday, SP member Tony Dupiano, SP Committee Chairman on Cultural Minority and Community Affairs, made the proposal of rewarding P200 thousand to a witness who will come out in the open, identify the suspects, and testify in court to speed up the solution of the crime.

Meantime, Rachel Magday, Executive Assistant to the Governor, recently explained that she only heard a driver of the provincial government telling that he allegedly saw a staffer of Oceana Gold distributing a copy of the anonymous letter which contains an allegation that Governor Luisa Lloren Cuaresma persuaded Baguilat to join her group in the enforcement of the Cease and Desist Oorder prior to his murder. Cuaresma denied the contents of the letter saying these are just the workings of unscrupulous people. She instead order police authorities to thoroughly investigate the murder.

Vice Governor Jose Gambito said in a previous meeting last Tuesday that Governor Cuaresma’s reputation is being pictured in articles coming out through the internet that she is the antagonist in the mining issue.

“What Governor Cuaresma wants is only the payment of local taxes and this does not necessarily mean that the provincial government is anti-mining,” Gambito said.

Provincial Administrator Manuel Tabora also clarified that the provincial government is not against the gold-and-copper project but only to collect the taxes the province deserves, to monitor the condition of the people working for the company, and to assure that there is no damage to the environment.

"If all these are assured, the Governor will simply tell Oceana Gold to go ahead with the activity," Tabora said. 

Cuaresma issued a cease and desist order last April 9 to temporarily stop mining operations until Oceana Gold pays its local taxes. The company defied the CDO saying they have the approval of DENR Secretary Lito Atienza to resume earth-moving activities.

The CDO enforcement by Cuaresma versus the resumption approval by Atienza has built up tension in the upland barangay where the mining operation will produce billions worth of gold and copper in 2010.

Gambito said the local leaders have seen the benefits the Didipioans and nearby residents have received in the form of employment but “we also want the whole province of Nueva Vizcaya to benefit from the mining activity even only in the form of taxes.”

Gambito cited the improvement of an access road coming from side of Quirino province but the existing road coming from Nueva Vizcaya itself is still left unimproved.

“Quirino is now enjoying improved trade and commerce with the increase of sales of vegetables and other necessities, increase in the number of hotel room nights, bank transactions, and also employment,” Gambito said iterating further that these benefits should also be felt by the people of Nueva Vizcaya.

He also called on Atienza to be more interested in the monitoring o fthe impact ofthe mining activity on the environment, the company's compliance to DENR requirements, and not on corporate matters. #gene basilio