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PUERTO PRINCESA CITY: Puerto Princesa City Mayor
Edward Hagedorn and leaders of two environment legal groups filed
charges against Napocor officials led by the head of the Small Power
Utilities Group (SPUG) and local employees responsible for “the
wanton, senseless and unconscionable destruction of century-old and
maturing mangrove trees” in various barangays in the city.
Environment lawyer Antonio
Oposa, a fellow United Nations Global 500 awardee of Hagedorn for
contributions to environment conservation and protection, and lawyer
Gerthie Mayo Anda of the Environmental Legal Assistance Center filed
the charges before the city prosecutors’ office.
They were charged with
illegal conversion of mangroves, illegal use of chain saws and
violation of the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development
regulation prohibiting the cutting of mangroves that are classified
as forest reserves.
Hagedorn also sought the ouster
of Lorenzo Marcelo, head of the Napocor-SPUG which manages the
various island power grids including Palawan and Puerto Princesa.
The concept of command responsibility demands that SPUG head Lorenzo
Marcelo either resigns or is removed from his post for the
irreversible damage Napocor-SPUG committed in our city,
Hagedorn said.
As of latest count, 196 fully
grown mangrove trees mostly century-old maturing 30-year-old to
60-year-old trees in Barangay Lucbuan were senselessly and
unconscionably felled by chain saws.
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