Transcript
ARCHBISHOP FRANCESCO PANFILO: As a religious worker he cannot, for example, exercise let's say his legal profession and collect fees. It cannot be. And in fact Doug - he receives board and lodging from us and a monthly allowance. He doesn't receive a salary and he has never charged anybody for the legal services. Now regarding the West Pomio issue he was my advisor and of course he was coming with me when I was advocating for the people of Pomio against RH [Rimbunan Hijau], because the people of West Pomio have asked the Archdiocese of Rabaul to get involved and speak up for them. When I asked the people why are you asking me to do that and they told me plainly "We do not believe in our politicians - we believe that the Church will help us" So I got involved and the more I got involved the more I discovered the social issues that were involved and the solution to this problem was by asking RH to agree to have a new lease agreement with the land owners of West Pomio.
DW: And do you believe that the pressure to remove Doug has come from that company, which is well know to have significant clout in Port Moresby?
FP: Well everybody b elieves that. Everybody believes that. We do not know who really lodged the complain against Doug and we do not really know their positions.
DW: What is the link of RH to the land that is being looked at here and the work that Doug had been doing?
FP: RH - they cut the logs, millions of cubic metres of logs and they eported them and then after that they planted oil palm. So there is an agreement, they have an agreement in November 2010 with the landowner groups. And these landowner groups signed the agreement with RH in 2010 but as the time was passing they realised that things were not alright. The company was not respecting the buffer zone, they were not respecting the sacred places, they were polluting the rivers, they were destroying the environment, and above all, after seven years there are no services. So that is when they asked the Archdiocese to get involved. I believe that Doug is the fall guy. They cannot kick out the Archbishop, because you know he is the archbishop, so they kick out Doug.
"We gave these tasks to carry out the work on the land. Now, as a religious worker, he cannot, for example, exercise his legal profession, and collect fees. And in fact, he receives board and lodging from us and a monthly allowance. He does not receive a salary."
DON WISEMAN: The Catholic Church has got a significant amount of weight in PNG. What are you going to do from this point?
FP: When you called I was about to talk with the secretary general of the Bishops Conference because I am issuing another letter. I am saying that any ordinary person knows that orders of this kind cannot be given unless there are powerful and wealthy institutions and personalities behind. For the sake of the ordinary and innocent people of PNG we ask the government to come clear once and for all. In conclusion I want to inform all sitting candidates and aspiring candidates for national election that neither the Archdiocese of Rabaul or the Catholic Bishops' Conference will take this matter lightly, as it seems to imply that to work for justice is outside a religious worker's status.