P'pang villagers lodge police report against logging firm
Published on: Saturday, May 21, 2016
Penampang: A police report has been lodged against a logging company that is said to be operating at Kg Babagon Laut in Terian, here, for about 15 years as the last resort after several letters of complaint seeking clarification from the relevant authority went unheeded.According to the villagers' representative Nousi Giun, the company had completely reduced 500 acres of the forest reserve to barren land and is starting to encroach the villagers' Native Customary Right (NCR) land nearby."As far as we know, the 500 acres belong to the Government because we have repeatedly applied for it and until today, no NT land title has been issued," he told a press conference, here, Friday.
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Also present were Moyog Assemblyman Terrence Siambun and Loretto Padua Jr., special officer to Penampang MP Darell Leiking.Nousi said the company is the same entity which was contracted to build the road from Kg Timpangoh, Sugud to Kg Terian in 2000. Upon the completion of the road work, the company did not leave the area but proceeded to conduct logging activity on the 500 acres. He claimed the activity had caused severe damage to the environment and spoiled the once beautiful river, famous among tourists, in the area.Even worse, the logging activity at the upstream of the Babagon Laut River is now inching towards Sabah Parks' area, he further claimed."We did not lodge any complaint in the past because at the time, their activity was quite restrained and they did not do it in the open. We thought they must have permission from landowners. But since about a year ago, they are increasingly becoming bolder, to the point that, now, they have a sawmill there.
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"So we wrote a letter to the Forestry Department and Lands and Surveys Department asking if this company has a permit to do logging activity, but we hear nothing till now."Last year in September, we wrote a letter of complaint to the District Officer, Luvita Koisun, and she, in turn, wrote a letter to the relevant departments asking for a copy of the permit, if there is any," he said.
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However, six months have passed, and the villagers still have not heard anything from either the government departments or the District Office.According to Terrence, he raised the question during the State Legislative Assembly sitting and received replies from both the Chief Minister's Department and Forestry Department verifying that no permit or logging licence was issued to any company or individual to carry out logging activity in Penampang, except on individual land."We have ascertained that these 500 acres do not belong to any individual and, therefore, this company may not have the required licence or permit."There is also no indication as to the name of the company, no signboard, or anything that shows this is a legal company. They hire foreign workers only and only two villagers work there, but they are paid daily wages."We believe this company is pulling a fast one because the area had been earmarked for the Kaiduan Dam project and they must have thought, since the land would be submerged anyway, they might as well harvest the resources there," he said.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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