Cantilan, Surigao del Sur — A Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) billed as a landmark step for reforestation was signed on April 21, 2025, between CTP Construction and Mining Corporation (CTPCMC) and 29 People’s Organizations (POs) from across Surigao del Sur. Held at San Pedro Country Club in Cantilan, the event drew praise for bringing together local groups to address reforestation needs, but behind the ceremony lies a glaring contradiction that raises deeper concerns about environmental governance in the province.
The agreement stems from CTPCMC’s obligation under the Special Tree Cutting and Earth-balling Permit (STCEP) — a permit that essentially legalizes deforestation to pave the way for mining operations. Once the company removes trees to extract mineral wealth, it is the same local communities, through these POs, that are tasked to repair the ecological damage under the guise of partnership and “community empowerment.”
Most of the participating POs are former beneficiaries of the National Greening Program (NGP), whose plantations were either wiped out by natural calamities or left to fail due to poor survival rates. Now, through the DENR Caraga’s Adopt-an-NGP program, these grassroots organizations are being linked to mining firms like CTPCMC — effectively turning reforestation into a corporate compliance exercise rather than a genuine environmental recovery effort.
Present at the MOA signing were CTPCMC President and CEO Atty. Ross Joseph J. Romanillos, alongside the 29 PO chairpersons and senior officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), including Regional Executive Director Maritess M. Ocampo and other provincial and municipal environment officers.
While the deal is being marketed as a win for environmental restoration, it lays bare a grim reality: mining companies are given permission to destroy forestlands, and the burden of healing the scars falls squarely on the shoulders of the very communities who stand to lose the most. Worse, the DENR — the agency meant to safeguard the environment — plays the role of matchmaker in this cycle of destruction and repair, enabling a system where environmental degradation is treated as business-as-usual, and “restoration” becomes an afterthought rather than a preventive measure.
As mining activities continue to expand across Surigao del Sur, questions linger: how sustainable can a reforestation program be if it only exists to cover the tracks of unchecked extractive industries? And how long will local communities be left to pick up the pieces while the profits flow elsewhere?