Dear Fathers, Brothers, Sisters, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for the invitation to give the “Singkai Lecture” for this year. This will give me the opportunity to clarify the role of the Archdiocese of Rabaul on the issue of the Sigite Mukus Oil Palm Project, taking place at West Pomio.

I would like to start by quoting the Encyclical letter, Laudato Si, of Pope Francis. He wrote:

“For indigenous communities land is not a commodity but rather a gift from God and from their ancestors who rest there, a sacred space with which they need to interact if they are to maintain their identities and values” (LS 146),”

Indigenous people extract their subsistence (their livelihood) from the land. To the Melanesian people land means life. This means that it must be cared for and protected. This is why Pope Francis asks the question: “What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us?” (LS 160) We are required to be good stewards and to leave behind us an inhabitable planet for future generations that will enable them to live in a manner which ensures the welfare of all members of a community.
“For indigenous communities land is not a commodity but rather a gift from God and from their ancestors who rest there, a sacred space with which they need to interact if they are to maintain their identities and values” (LS 146).”

Indigenous people extract their subsistence (their livelihood) from the land. To the Melanesian people land means life. This means that it must be cared for and protected. This is why Pope Francis asks the question: “What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us?” (LS 160) We are required to be good stewards and to leave behind us an inhabitable planet for future generations that will enable them to live in a manner which ensures the welfare of all members of a community. This is why Pope Francis states that when establishing a project some crucial questions need to be asked: Why is the project taking place? What will it accomplish? Where is the project located? Who will benefit from the project? What are the risks? What are the costs? Who will pay these costs and how? (L S 185) Laudato Si emphasizes the fact that the Church is not opposed to development. However, as Pope Francis says, when planning a project, which has environmental implications: “a consensus should always be reached between the different stakeholders who can offer a variety of approaches, solutions and alternatives. The local people have a special place at the table; they are concerned about their own future and that of their children, and can consider goals transcending immediate economic interest” (Laudato Si 185). The points made by Pope Francis in Laudato Si are fully in accord with the National Goals and Directive Principles contained in the Constitution of Papua New Guinea, especially the Second National Goal and Directive Principle, namely: equality and participation. This National Goal and Directive Principle emphasizes the need for:

 

• An equitable distribution of incomes and other benefits of development among individuals and throughout all part of the country (section 3);
• Equal access to the different governmental services and the equalization of these services (subsection 4);
• People being able to become involved in projects and businesses, which will both be beneficial to themselves and contribute to the common good of the community and the country.

The overall goal is for every citizen to actively participate in the political, economic, social, religious and cultural life of the country. Unfortunately these goals and principles, along with the processes through which they should be implemented, have not been followed with the Sigite-Mukus Oil Palm project in West Pomio. And I am sure that this did not happen in most of the Special Agriculture Business Leases (SABL) around the country.

What is a SABL?

It was in 1979 when the Special Agriculture Business Lease, also known as a lease-lease-back scheme, was created. By leasing the land to the Government a formal title could be granted for the land. This could then be leased back to the land owners and could be used as collateral for a bank loan or as the basis for sub-leasing the land to a third party for development purposes. The sub leasing to a third party was supposed to enable customary land to be developed and utilized for commercial purposes. By leasing it to a third party the concept of the SABL or lease-lease-back scheme was supposed to have the following advantages:

1. It would provide some financial assistance to customary landowners;
2. It would allow some development to occur on the vast amounts of customary land which would in turn benefit the economy;
3. It would bring infrastructure development and other services to remote areas.

The Sigite Mukus Oil Palm Project is being undertaken by Gilford Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rimbunan Hijau (RH). The Project covers a large area of 55,400 hectares, broken into four blocks which are owned by four (4) respective Local Land Owner Companies (LCO) as follows:

• Pomata Investments Ltd; (15,000 hectares);
• Ralopal Investments Ltd; (11,300 hectares);
• Nakiura Investments Ltd; (16,100 hectares);
• Unung-Sigite Investments Ltd. (13,000 hectares).

The manner in which the agreement was entered into was unconscionable. This means that the local people were forced to sign the agreements without being given a proper explanation of the agreement and its consequences and without being encouraged to seek independent legal advice. The results are contracts whose terms and conditions favor Rimbunan Hijau to the detriment of the land owners. This has had a number of very negative consequences. One of these is environmental devastation. Another is the decimation of sacred sites. I made my first visit to West Pomio during Christmas of 2010, when I was the Coadjutor Archbishop of Rabaul. At that time the Oil Palm project was about to start.  In 2013, during one of my pastoral visits to the communities of the Pomio Deanery, individuals and groups of people repeatedly asked me to support them, to speak on behalf of the people with no voice.  It must be stated clearly that in this particular case, the Church did not have any other interest than to bring peace and unity among the people, genuine development for West Pomio, and the common good of all. The main reason for getting involved was because there was tension and deep division within the Christian community in West Pomio, even within family units. There were some acts of violence, although they were contained and this must be attributed to the kind nature of the people of West Pomio and to the Christian values they have imbibed. I felt it was my duty as Bishop to try my very best to unite the people. We succeeded in bringing together the directors of the various landowners’ groups who signed the SABL and the rest of the people. In the process I discovered things that I could not imagine. For example, I realized that the sub lease agreement negotiated under the SABL is very unjust to the customary landowners. No less than the former Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Hon. Peter O’Neil, on presenting the Commission of Inquiry’s reports to Parliament on September 2013, said that these reports revealed a shocking trend of mismanagement and corruption at all stages of the SABL process and there needed to be change. And he stated: “We will no longer watch on as foreign owned companies come in and con our landowners, chop down our forests and then take the proceeds offshore … For too long landowners have been taken advantage of and had their land stolen from under them” [Post Courier, 20.09.2013]. I have been accused of “deceit and of abusing my right as missionary by engaging in sensitive landowner issues”. There is no doubt that the issues at hand are indeed sensitive! So sensitive in fact, that no decent person should allow these things to happen.  Some people may ask: “Is this the job of the Bishop. Is this the job of a Religious Worker”? I did ask myself these questions and I did ask the people why they asked me to speak up for them. I told them: “Why don’t you ask your political leaders”? They responded: “We don’t trust our leaders. We know that the Church will not abandon us”.  Can a Bishop look the other way? Can a Religious Worker pretend that these injustices are not happening? To advocate for the vulnerable and powerless, which is the situation of the people of West Pomio, is a Gospel mandate, just as it is to educate the young and care for sick people. It is the duty of every religious worker and of every Christian for that matter, to give effect to the teachings of Christ in word and action.  Of course, there are risks. There could be a price to pay. As you might know, the Administrator of the Archdiocese of Rabaul, Mr. Douglas Tennent, was deported in June 2017, because of his involvement in advising me and helping the landowners of West Pomio. Of course, one wonders why those who expose these evil and unjust practices should be deported, while those who commit them are not! I must admit that I knew nothing about the SABL and I wonder whether you, who are listening to me now, know what the “Special Agricultural Business Lease” is all about. I learned as I continued my work of mediation. Some light came to me, when at Makaen the chairman of Memalo Holding, Mr. John Parulrea, and some directors agreed to meet with members of the community. During that meeting, mentioned was made of the need of a new lease agreement, because the present one was considered unjust and unfair to the people.  At that time – towards the end of 2014 – Mr. Doug Tennent had just taken up the task of Administrator of the Archdiocese and since he has been a lecturer of law at UPNG, I proposed that he would give me and the community legal advice.  Then on the 24^th May, 2015 Pope Francis published his Encyclical Letter “Laudato S’” on the care of our common home. I felt that, as a Bishop, it was necessary to respond to the Encyclical Letter in a very concrete and practical way:

1. Disposing of the land, especially of large plantations;
2. Starting a housing project for low income earners;
3. Helping achieve a broad consensus in the Sigite Mukus Palm Oil Project in West Pomio”.

As for the third point, on the second half of the year 2015, we started asking the people what they considered wrong in the Sub-lease agreements and what they wanted included in the proposed new lease agreement. Mr. Doug, relying on the input of the people, came up with a document that was presented to people at Makaen and then explained. A team went from ward to ward in order to get a consensus about the document. We know we have a broad consensus. The document was submitted to Rimbunan Hijau. On 31^st May, 2016, Mr. Doug Tennent and I came to Port Moresby and had a meeting with a high level delegation of RH. To be honest, I was impressed by the attention given to all the points of our submission, so much so, that Doug and I came out of the meeting convinced that RH was open to re-negotiate a new lease agreement. As time passed, we were reminded by RH that the present sub-lease agreement is a legally binding document. We never denied that. We know that it is a legal document. The question is: is it fair? Is it moral? What the landowners were asking was a re-negotiation for a new lease agreement that is fair and just for all: for the developer as well as for the landowners. The great majority of the people of West Pomio were not and are not asking for the Sigite Mukus Oil Palm Project to stop; rather they are asking, through the Archdiocese of Rabaul, for a new Lease Agreement that is fair and just, one that respects the environment and that provides the delivery of services to the communities.  This has been my and the Archdiocese’s position from day one and we have not changed that. Not only have we never refused to dialogue, but we asked the other party to come to the negotiating table. On the other hand, for a roundtable discussion to bring lasting fruits it needs three things:

1. We must all seek the truth. Lies will lead us nowhere.
2. There has to be transparency.
3. There should be no intimidation and bribes.

On June 2017, Mr. Doug Tennent was deported. The accusation against him was: “the blatant abuse of the conditions of his Religious Worker visa, by engaging in sensitive landowners issues”. I wish to make some comments about some of these “sensitive landowner issues”.

1. The sub-lease agreement negotiated under the SABL is very unjust to the customary landowners and people did not know it; even those who signed the agreement did not know. For example, people were unaware that the sub-lease agreement is for 60 years, with the option to renew it for the remaining term of the State Lease (another 40 years). The question is that the option for the extension is in the hands of Gilford Ltd and not of the landowners. On Friday, 16 June, 2017, The National newspaper published an article on the press conference held in Moresby on Thursday 15 June; the article stated: “The landowners said the sub-lease agreements with the developer were due for review only in 2020 and this was conveyed to Tennent and the Archbishop of Rabaul, Francesco Panfilo, in May last year”. It is true that the message was conveyed to me and Doug. However, nothing was said about our response to this, which is, that what is going to be reviewed in 2020 is not the sub-lease agreement itself, which was signed on 29 November 2010 and expires on 29 November 2070, but the rental fees. In other words, the sub-lease agreement is not up for review in 2020. In all our written or oral statements beside, we never used the word “review”; we always stated categorically that what people want is the re-negotiation of a new lease agreement. Regarding the unjust nature of the sub-lease agreement, it is not just the people of Pomio that say that the existing SABLs are unjust and unfair. Already in 2014, the National Executive Council (NEC) by NEC decision # 184/2014 implemented the Commission of Inquiry into the SABLs Report by declaring all Special Agriculture Business Leases around the country illegal. Obviously this decision affects also the Pomio SABL. Gilford Ltd, therefore, must cooperate and be willing to re-negotiate the Agreement.
2. Inadequate rental payments that are given for the land and the failures to pay rent at all for land for the last two years. For your information, the initial amount that was to be paid as rent to landowners under the lease agreement was the incredibly low fee of K1.00, one Kina per year, per hectare! This was later amended to K1.40 per hectare, per year. There are other rental fees, such as the rental for the land planted with oil palm, which is K13.00 per hectare per year. There are different years when a review of these rental fees will happen.
3. The use of coercive means to apply pressure to get landowners to sign Consent Forms for concession areas.
4. Failure to inform the people about the volume of logs that are annually being exported from the project area. And failure to pay different and proper royalty rates for different species of timber. Do people know how many m3 of logs were exported since 2011 to 2016? Do people know the value in Kina of the timber exported from 2011 to the end of 2016? According to the agreement, landowners should receive K10:00 for every cubic meter of logs exported. But how could they claim if they don’t know how many cubic meters of logs were exported?
5. The Societe’ Generale de Surveillance (SGS), based at Port Moresby, has these figures and I wish to share them here for everybody’s knowledge:

• 2011               36,675 m3       K 7,377,544.83
• 2012                100,195 m3     K 18,158,739.24
• 2013               219,889 m3     K 44,814,602.71
• 2014                339,383 m3     K 86,146,749.87
• 2015                162,270 m3     K 40,795,468.97
• 2016                402,343 m3     K 116,034,436.75
• Total m3          1,260,755        K 313,327,542.27

The issue of environmental devastation and the failure to respect sacred sites.

After six years, there are no significant changes in social and community services. he Company boasts about the roads and the sea port at Drina. The Archdiocese of Rabaul has never denied that there are now roads linking the villages, as well as an operational harbor at Drina as a result of the timber project. Of course, thousands and thousands of trees have been cut down, transported and shipped overseas and so the roads and the port had to be built, but where did the money come from? Who really paid for them? What else is there to boast about?

The action of the police who stay at the camp sites.The Archdiocese of Rabaul brought this to the attention of the Ombudsman Commission and I went personally to meet the PC Regional and the PC Provincial Commanders. They visited the area, together with other 4 officers. During those days I was also in the area for my Lenten Patrol. I was very happy about their visit. But I was dismayed when I came to know that during their three days visit they were the guests of the Company. When I asked people whether they were able to let the PC Commanders know what was going on, they told me: “How could we; they were the guests of Mok”.  As mentioned, on 31^st May, 2016, Mr. Doug Tennent and I met a team of RH to discuss our proposal for an eventual renegotiation of the agreement and sub-lease agreements. After several months, since RH did not respond to our request, on 25^th November 2016, the Landowners’ Groups, Pomata, Ralopal, and Nakiura, with the help of the Archdiocese of Rabaul, filed legal proceedings against RH.  Why? There were two main reasons: To obtain a court order for MEDIATION and to beat the 6 years statutory limitation period, otherwise no one would be able to bring RH to court after the 6 years elapsed.  From March 26^th– 27^th 2018, a Mediation was conducted at Kokopo to address the issues relating to the Sigite Mukus Oil Palm Project in West Pomio. The Mediation was conducted by External Accredited Mediator, Craig Jones. There were positive results from the mediation; for example: Gilford Limited and the Landowners’ Companies agreed to renegotiate the current project development agreement and sub-lease Agreement in 2020. This mediated arrangement opens the door to effectively address all of the issues, concerns, and tensions that relate to the project. It allows both parties to negotiate on equal terms and enables the Land owners to take the lead in proposing the Terms and Conditions of the new Agreements based on equity, justice, sustainability and with an emphasis on the need for environment awareness and protection. Unfortunately we met stiff resistance on the part of RH (Gilford Limited); and there was no much cooperation. And so, on 1^st March 2019, a second mediation meeting was held at Port Moresby. The reason for the meeting related to concerns that RH and its agents were not complying with the terms of the mediation settlement. In particular, there were issues of trying to derail the election process, not respecting Conservation sites and not insuring that correct information was distributed about the mediation. In this second mediation it was agreed that Gilford Limited would communicate with the Landowners with respect and:

• will only deal with the Land Owner Company directors with respect to the project;
• will respect and maintain conservation areas as per agreements and law
• Will assist in the completion of the Governance processes.

It was also agreed that the parties will not interfere with any Land Owner Company governance processes. This is important. Much concern has been raised about interference. It is important that the elections are undertaken openly and people can freely chose the people that they want as a director based on correct information. It is planned that once the Board of Directors have been finalized there will be, in July, two meetings with Gilford: one concerning the issues of Pomata, Ralopal and Nakiura. The other will concern the issue of Unung Sigite.  There are a number of issues such as outstanding rental and royalty payments and accountability for payments made. Also we need to be moving toward the negotiation of the new development and sub-lease agreements in 2020. In this regard we are in the process of undertaking the work necessary for the Environmental Impact Assessment.

The way forward

It has been and continues to be a very difficult exercise. One of the big challenges is the tactics of the company and its unethical influence on the land owners. We are encouraged by the Marape – David Government’s commitment to “take back PNG”. A way forward would be for government to oblige RH and all large companies, associated with the SABL and other issues concerning land and resources, to renegotiate the existing agreements.

The approach taken by the Archdiocese of Rabaul is to oblige all large companies – foreign and local – for a complete renegotiation of the agreements, based on justice and according to the following points:

• That there has to be fair rental payment for the land;
• That there has to be fair royalties for the Oil Palm;
• That the environmental devastation is addressed;
• That policies are put in place to ensure sound environmental practices;
• That there is proper dialogue between the land owners and the companies with regards to the project and the landowners concerns are listened to;
• That sacred sites are respected;
• That there is an appropriate contribution to sustainable community services by the company;
• That there are provisions to ensure that the contract is implemented.

Another approach is writing a small booklet, both in English and Tok Pisin, to assist and guide land landowners when encountering such difficulties. In fact, one of the issues which is of great concern is the manner in which local land owners can be manipulated and exploited by foreign companies, even big local companies into entering into agreements with regards to land. Hopefully such a booklet will help people to become informed by the situation.

Conclusion

During the deportation of Mr. Doug Tennent, in a press conference organized by RH, it was claimed that the Archbishop and Mr. Tennent continue to “propagate divisions among the landowners and landowner company directors”. The Archbishop and Mr. Tennent were accused “of deceit”, because they “are not advocating for the landowners”, but rather “they are out to permanently stop the desires and aspirations for development” of landowners.  I wish to assure all of you present here, and I want to reassure all the people of Pomio that we are not asking for the Sigite Mukus Oil Palm Project to stop; my only wish is to see the people of Pomio not only united among themselves, but also reconciled. And I will continue to do everything I can to do so. That’s why I am convinced that drafting a new lease agreement that is fair and just to all could be the first step towards genuine unity and reconciliation. Unfortunately, the strategy of “divide people in order to rule” is commonly practiced by greedy and powerful economic groups who want to enrich themselves at all cost. The strategy of the Church, however, is “unite people in order to serve” the common good of all.  Land is a wonderful gift of God. It is our “common home”; it should bring people together, instead is tearing people apart because of greed and pride. The Church has the duty to help people consider themselves as stewards of the land rather than the owners of the land. As believers, we should not look at the land from the point of view of our tribe or clan, but from the point of view of God who gave the land to all of us, his children. “Jesus reminded us that we have God as our common Father and that this makes us brothers and sisters” (LS 228) after all God is the “nambawan papa graun”, because this land and all its resources were in place even before the various groups of people came here. We must help people to work together cooperatively and in harmony. The motto of the Archdiocese of Rabaul is: “Ut Unum Sint” – “That they may be one”. The motto for our work with Sigite-Mukus is: “wanpela tingting, wanpela nek, wanpela wokabaut”; “one mind, one voice, one journey”. We would like to be true to this as we move forward together over the next twelve months.  For this reason I appeal to everyone to put aside personal interests and think about the good of all, especially of our children. What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us? The Church does not have any other interest than “to encourage an honest and open dialogue so that particular interests or ideologies will not prejudice the common good” (LS 188) (Pastoral Letter 7).