The Technical Working Group (TWG) created by the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) to look into the viability of rehabilitating and reviving PICOP, once Asia’s biggest pulp and paper mill in Bislig City, Surigao del Sur has started.
MinDA Director Joey Recimilla, TWG Team Leader, said engagements were made with the Local Government officials led by Bislig City Mayor Florencio Garay, other agencies of government and stakeholders upon the team’s arrival in the area this week.
The situation on the ground was described as “tense” following the killing a week earlier of one of the PICOP labor leaders, Joselito Soriano, who was reported to have led the group which pilfered scrap irons and heavy equipment from the plant site.
Among the initial inputs submitted by the TWG were the report that the facilities appeared to be in varying state of deterioration and decay.
The facility, which is under a Court-ordered receiver, Francisco Buencamino, also faces several claims from creditors, the LGU for uncollected taxes and the workers for their wage claims.
The PICOP tree plantations have been occupied by settlers who have continued planting trees or engaged in agricultural activities.
The timber from the trees, mostly Falcata, are supplied to two smaller plywood factories operating in Bislig City which employs hundreds, especially women.
The TWG noted that the first challenge in the rehabilitation and revival of the pulp and paper mill would be the hurdling of legal issues, including the foreclosure petition of the Land Bank of the Philppines which is pending before the Supreme Court.
The LGU is also laying claim on the property because of unpaid taxes amounting to P200-M while former workers are demanding the complete payment of their back wages.
PICOP, once Asia’s most modern pulp and paper mill, employed an estimated 20,000 workers at the height of its operations but shut down in 2006 following the imposition of a total log ban and the Asian Economic Crisis.
The rehabilitation and revival of the PICOP has long been sought by residents of Bislig City and the surrounding areas citing the economic prosperity of the area when the facility was still operating.
MinDA’s legal team will review all of the issues involved in the PICOP rehabilitation plan while the TWG will continue with its assessments and validation, including options which could be explored should the revival of the facility is seen to be not viable.
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(Photos of the PICOP facilities and meetings with stakeholders were taken by the MinDA TWG for the Rehabilitation and Revival of PICOP Pulp and Paper Mills.)
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