BEN SERRANO
Contributing editor
ROSARIO, AGUSAN DEL SUR—Barangay Libuac officials headed by Barangay Captain Cesar Fuentes, Sr. and Rosario Municipal Health Office headed by Dr. Rebecca Aquino cleared Filipinas Palm Oil Plantations Inc. of any wrongdoings partciularly on charges of pollution raised by NGEI Multi-Purpose Cooperative Inc.
Earlier officials of said cooperative headed by Hernancito Ronquillo claimed 17 of its members have fallen ill due to chemcial spray, which turned out to be a herbicide to control growth of grasses in the oil palm plantation.
Barangay Libuac health worker Dulsora Exdiaure claimed the allegations of former plantation worker Reynaldo Mendez that he got his liver cancer from too much exposure of herbicides was not true after all saying Mendez was never a sprayer but an ordinary worker.
A herbicide sprayer herself for 17 years, Exdiaure claimed she is healthy as ever and even showed her medical certificate issued by government physicians of her clean bill of health.
Exdiaure who claimed he knew Mendez as co-plantatiion worker for years said Mendez has habit of habitual drinking of hard liquor by which she suspects, it was the caused of his alleged too much wine drinking.
Barangay Captain Cesar Fuentes, Sr. of Libuac for his part claimed he knew personally all sixteen persons, all NGEI cooperative members saying some were his neighboors and chidlhood friends as he confessed some of them have already showed skin diseases even in their childhood days.
Fuentes claimed the sixteen coop members who went to Manila to undergo medical check up for suspected skin disorder, majority of which are Barangay Libuac residents never complained to his office about their plight.
The NGEI Multi-Purpose Cooperative office in San Francisco, Agusan del Sur identified those who seek medical check up in Metro Manila as; Rogelio Duterte, Romeo Auha, Pablo Naldoza, Ramil Caores, Osias Dela Vega, Gloria Pequerola, Lorna Daquio, Anastacio Demafelis, Andreso Numeron, Neria Alagon, Jesus Ayaton, Panfilo Duarte, Jr., Dominador Galano, Juvame Nahine and Engracio Y. Campos.
Fuentes said he can bravely face to face all sixteen coop members and tell them right on their faces that they were lying and not telling the truth.
The sixteen coop members including Mendez claimed getting sick from chemical spray at the Filipinas Palm Oil Plantation, Inc.
Fuentes however is suspecting the allegations of the sixteen workers have something to do with the court cases the cooperative is now facing particularly the failure to follow signed agreement for “industrial peace” with the NGEI and FPPI officials to settle row peacefully.
Agusan del Sur Vice Governor Santiago Cane, Jr. who brokered the talks between the NGEI cooperative and the Filipinas Palm Oil Plantations, Inc. (FPPI) claimed clearly the NGEI cooperative failed to follow agreement it signed last June 2008.
Last June 2008, the two parties signed an agreement at Dottie’s Hotel and Convention Center in Butuan City to stay away from any trouble like holding picket or any other moves that may stain the already somehow rocky relationships between the cooperative and FPPI.
Vice Governor Cane as principal witness and peace initiator, FPPI owner Dennis Villareal in behalf of FPPI and officers of the NGEI Multi-Purpose Cooperative headed by Ronquillo, signed the agreement.
The animosites started after some members of the NGEI coop accused Ronquillo leadership for alleged corruption due to unliquidated cash advances due expenses thus formed another group which also claimed the rental money for their lands paid by FPPI to them through the cooperative have allegedly never reached them.
The cooperative which is composed of Agrarian Reform beneficiaries collectively owned 3,996.649 hectares of land now rented at more than P3,000 a year per hectare by the Filipinas Palm Oil Plantations for their oil palm plantations.