A new cartoon highlighting the failure of the Prime Minister Peter O'Neill to take any action over the SABL land grab has been strategically placed on a billboard right outside his Departmental office.
Any action by the government to address the SABL land grab and illegal logging is very welcome - but landowners have been waiting two years, not six months as the Chief Secretary claims...
By Jack Lapauve Jr – EM TV, Port Moresby
The inquiry into the Special Agriculture Business Leases (SABL) has been taken over by an Independent Task Force Team.
Despite staunch protests, Malaysian palm oil giant Kuala Lumpur Kepong (KLK) has illegally forced its way forward to try develop almost 40,000 hectares of customary land in the Collingwood Bay region of Papua New Guinea. The indigenous communities of Collingwood Bay have made themselves clear, they do not want their lands to be cleared for palm oil or anything else, but instead want KLK out of their lands with immediate effect.
A new radio advert on the SABL land grab has hit the airwaves in PNG.
The advert calls on Prime Minister Peter O'Neill to cancel the fraudulent SABL leases and stop the illegal logging.
Peter O'Neill has released two Commission of Inquiry reports that expose widespread fraud in the issuing of SABL leases over more than 5 million hectares of customary land.
The Director of Papua New Guinea's National Research Institute says controversial land leases that have been proved to be faudulent, should be revoked.
Last week, Prime Minister Peter O'Neill told parliament that of 42 Special Agricultural and business leases examined by a Commission of Enquiry, only four had the consent of landowners.
ALOIS Jerewai, one of the commissioners in the inquiry into the Special Agricultural and Business Leases, says he is willing to repay at least K970,000 paid to him as wages to produce a report.
“I have assets to give back to the State because I (have) got nothing to lose,” Jerewai told journalists in Port Moresby yesterday.
