Lafayette officials caught lying?

Here is a news article, published a few days before we created this blog, which thus explains why it has escaped our notice. Otherwise, we would have posted this long ago.

Here is a classic example of how Lafayette officials attempted to spin a story in their favor.

Ms. Calleja painted Lafayette as a benevolent benefactor who happened to rescue a group of lost storm-drenched UP students and their professor. They were given the nicest accommodations, free of charge (she didn't fail to mention that), then sent off with sunshiny smiles the morning after.

Prof. Lacdan, however, saw things in a different light. She and her students were peacefully gathering water samples outside Lafayette property when company guards accosted them, took away their samples, "invited" them to the mine camp where they were interrogated for hours. The negotiation to get back their water samples took so long, and the storm outside had grown stronger, that they were forced to spend the night within company premises.

A text message sent by Prof. Lacdan to one Sagip Isla officer had her asking for a boat to fetch them for they have been threatened to leave the camp before a certain deadline ends or they might not come out of the camp at all. A boat was promptly sent to fetch them. They dropped by Brgy. Poblacion before going to Legazpi City. Witnesses who saw them said they looked obviously in distress, in a hurry to leave the island and visibly afraid. When asked what happened, Prof. Lacdan answered that she won't say anything till they reach Manila.

Atty. Agabin, for his part, threatened to sue the rumor-mongers of a non-existent fish kill. He even dared people to come up with a more graphic picture of the fish kill. The events that followed obviously had him getting more than he bargained for.

The rumor turned-out to be very real. The alleged rumor-mongers have since grown in number and credibility. It's no longer just the militants. He might as well sue the entire clergy of the Diocese of Legazpi, or Bishops Quiambao and Bastes (of Sorsogon). While at it, why not go at Albay Governor Salceda himself? The governor has been quoted in press interviews to be so against Lafayette's operations in the island and so convinced of the cause advocated by Agabin's activist rumor-mongers.

And, by the way, There's not just a "picture of dead fish floating on Poblacion’s waters". To take the now-famous infomercial line, we say: "But wait... there's more!" To take Agabin's dare, we ask him to click this url: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3NrqY0mvU8&feature=related.

One last question for Atty. Agabin: How much thousands or hundreds of jobs for Rapu-Rapu folk are we talking about exactly? Why don't you reveal how many Rapu-Rapu locals you actually employ relative to the island's total population, or to the island's fishing community?

So much for the press-released Lafayette commitment to "truth and transparency".

Two months after the fish kill, it's the Lafayette people who are in panic now as big investors have grown tired of their company's recidivist and exploitative ways. Now they are going down. And we won't allow that they take Rapu-Rapu down with them.


Lafayette, Inc. denies detaining UP students getting water samples in Rapu-rapu island
By Rhaydz B. Barcia
http://www.bicolmail.com/issue/2007/nov22/lafayette.html

LEGAZPI CITY -– Officials of Lafayette Philippines Inc., (LPI) denied accusation by Fr. Fedelino Bugauisan that the mine firm had detained a professor and students of the University of the Philippines-Manila who were doing water sampling in the island town of Rapu-Rapu, Albay last Sunday.

Cecile Calleja, LPI vice president and corporate affairs chief, said that on the contrary, they were worried about the students and Professor Naty Lacdan for their safety after they found out that the group bravely traveled on small seacraft when the sea was rough due to the low pressure area that had been hounding Bicol since last week.

“I hope the good professor and her seven students arrived safely in the Poblacion despite the terrible weather. Late last night, our guards found them wandering about wet, cold and hungry amidst the biting wind and pouring rain,” she told Bicol Mail.

“I myself saw the miserable state they were in and wondered how their parents allowed them to travel under such dangerous condition,” she said, adding that they offered them dinner, breakfast, lunch, accommodation, fresh clothes and even free laundry services.

The group stayed until Monday when it was relatively safer to travel by boat,” Calleja added.

On Sunday afternoon, Fr. Bugauisan sent a message to a national paper claiming that “a UP Manila professor and her students went today (Sunday) to Rapu-Rapu to do water sampling but were held off by Lafayette security guards at the water sampling site.”

Lacdan is a bio-chem professor at the University of the Philippines-Manila who accompanied her students to Rapu-Rapu to get water samples at Mirikpitik Creek of Pagcolbon village.

Lacdan admitted in a text message that the blue guards of Lafayette seized from them water samples taken from Binosawan river on Sunday.

“They got our water samples; they thought the water was taken from Lafayette perimeter. After explaining to them, ok na daw kaso di kami makabalik sa Poblacion kasi malakas ang ulan, alon at hangin. Dito kami nag-stay for a night dahil inabot na ng gabi ang negotiation na di kami papayag makumpiska sample namin.”

“Di kami aalis hanggang di binabalik sample namin, bandang huli naniwala sila na purely for thesis work lang iyan sample,” Lacdan said in her text message sent Monday at around 1:34 a.m.

Lacdan and her seven students were staying at the guesthouse owned by the Rapu-Rapu local government unit.

As this developed, Lafayette Philippines Inc. threatened to file charges against those who put the blame on the mining firm for the reported fish kill in Rapu-Rapu after the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and the Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment of Natural Resources declared the waters off Rapu-Rapu free from cyanide and other chemical contamination.

Lawyer Bayani Agabin, LPI spokesman said that his office was looking at legal options to put to rest the unfounded accusation that the mining firm had something to do with the fishkill due to toxic contamination.

“There was no fishkill. Whoever is pushing this wild theory will have to explain why the sea right in front of our project in Barangay Pagcolbon and the other barangays nearby have no problems while Poblacion, which is about 10 kilometers away, is reported to have been affected,” Agabin pointed out.

Agabin said that nobody could even show a picture of dead fish floating on Poblacion’s waters. “The pictures we got showed at most two kilos of small fish piled up neatly on the pavement. The barangays between Pagcolbon and Poblacion also certified they have no incident of fishkill,” he added.

Agabin said the Filipino-led management of the mining firm that took over the Rapu Rapu project three months after reports of chemical leaks in the mine in October 2005 has religiously followed all the rules and espoused responsible mining practices.

“We cannot and will not allow a few misdirected persons to stampede the public into panic through baseless scare tactics and jeopardize the thousands of jobs we have created, including hundreds from Rapu Rapu island itself,” he added.