British Palm Oil Company to invest in Loreto AgSur
By Juvanie C. Espana/Municipal Information
Services
LORETO,
AGUSAN DEL SUR- a British palm oil
company is planning to invest on palm oil plantation industry in the
Municipality of Loreto.
NBOL, a medium-sized
Papua New Guinnea-based company has eyed barangay Sta. Teresa as the pilot test
area and demonstration farm for palm oil. According to Mr. Clive Taylor,
assistant operations manager, the plan is a part of the company’s thirty-six
thousand hectares target expansion of palm oil plantation in Asia. He added
that Sta. Teresa is chosen as the pilot area for this plan because of the soil
suitability and the availability of land which is at least one thousand
hectares for the initial operation.
With Mr. Taylor is Mr. Guy Williams,
an Australian environmental consultant assured the people of Loreto that the
proposed project must comply with the Roundtable Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)
global standards to ensure that plantation wastes do not deplete the
environment. He emphasized that aside from the consultation, they will also
conduct a mapping in the area to identify and preserve important places for the
lumad Manobo such as burial and hunting grounds.
In the initial three-day consultation
conducted on June 4-6, 2013 by the investors together with the personnel from
the Agusan del Sur Economic Sustainability and Development Council (ASESDC),
representatives from the Department of Agriculture (DA) Caraga Regional Office
13, and some other invited personnel from the Department of Agrararian Reform
(DAR) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) of the
province of Agusan del Sur, about six hundred barangay constituents which
compose the indigenous peoples sector, the agrarian reform beneficiaries,
women’s group and the entire farming sector of the barangay have signified
interest to the proposal.
Along this line, Honorable Mayor-elect
Dario E. Otaza expressed his full support to the plan as this will open a great
investment opportunity for Loreto and that development can finally take off
after decades of long waiting. He said that NBPOL is interested to invest in
Loreto after they learned that peace and order situation in the place is
pacified. “Here’s what we have been
aspiring for. We have to show to them that we are indeed united so that they
(investors) would be encouraged more and put on their investments here. If this
happens, progress would be coming in and that our problems on unemployment and
poverty can be addressed.” Mayor-elect Otaza added.
Meanwhile, SB Member-elect Ricky Q.
Angwas, who is the Secretary-General of the Agusan del Sur Tribal Council
expressed his support to the project and promised to pass a legislative measure
to impose tax holidays to encourage more investments to come in the
Municipality of Loreto.
When asked as to when shall the
project commence, Mr. Taylor replied that the company follows its approved
activity plan and as early as the mandatory requirements of the government are
complied with and that all land ownership are free of tenurial conflicts and
people of the eleven target barangays of Loreto are consulted, NBPOL top
management shall send a go signal for the operation.