Hela Governor

Governor Undialu whilst passing his condolence to the immediate family members and colleagues of the lost officer, said Hela people, especially residents of Tari town are innocent.

 He is concerned that opportunists might capitalise on the existing situations and cause problems for the township.

Undialu said Hela has done well last 12 months in managing law and order except few instances.

“As we approach this Christmas and into the New Year, we plan to launch and commission some key infrastructure in the province. This incident is now a setback for us.”

He made this call after nominating to defend the Hela regional seat today. He nominated alongside Member for Tari-Pori and Prime Minister, James Marape.

Undialu urged the people to assist the Electoral Commission and the police to conduct a fair election. He said Hela would never be the same again, despite critics on social media depicting a bad image of Hela and its people.

Governor Undialu said it has been a year already and money received to assist those affected in his province has not reached them.

He blamed Treasury, Finance and the Prime Minister’s Office for the alleged misused of disaster funds.

He claimed that the US$50 million (K159.34m) World Bank loan obtained for last year’s 7.5 magnitude earthquake has been misapplied by Government, including K106 million from donations.

Governor Undialu has called on the World Bank to recall its US$50m loan and hold the Government accountable for this.

Governor Undialu said people who have contributed in cash and kind have to be acknowledged.

A massive earthquake of 7.5 magnitude struck some areas in Hela, Southern Highlands, Western and Enga provinces on February 26^th, 2018.

The NEC immediately declared a State of Emergency and further approved K450 million for relief operations and to restore services, as well as the formation of an emergency disaster restoration team and the establishment of a restoration authority.

He recently resolved and concluded a peace deal between two clans at Idawi, where the tribal fight claimed 51 lives and displaced more than eight council wards since 2014.

Undialu’s motto for 2019 is Peace, Unity and Development.

On Thursday, Governor Undialu managed to bring peace between the leaders of Sai Apa and Talira clans, whose confrontations claimed 51 lives since 2014.

Both parties agreed to end the fights and compensate the 51 deceased from both sides. 

Undialu said the Tari airport has made a lot of money for NAC during the PNG LNG Project construction and should not be punished for an incident that they are not responsible for, with respect to the Mendi incident.

Governor Undialu in a statement said for almost three months since the closure of Tari airport, the people of Hela have suffered and have risked their safety by travelling on the highway to Mt Hagen, just to get on a plane.

Francis Potape’s petition was dismissed by the National Court on January 24. He was challenging Philip Undialu’s win as Hela Governor.

He will be seeking leave of the Supreme Court to review the reasons behind the dismissal of his petition next Wednesday.

The grounds of the review are on the basis that the National Court went outside the objection grounds raised by Undialu and made findings on its own.

The high court will hear the review if leave is granted.

The petitioner in the Jimi Open seat has also filed for review in the Supreme Court.

Undialu’s lawyer filed an application seeking to vary the order of 17 November 2017, which joined the two petitions filed by Francis Potape and Dr Hewali Hemia for trial.

Justice Ellenas Batari today heard arguments in court and will give a ruling next week.

Undialu’s lawyer submitted in court today that the two petitions should be tried separately because they have different factual scenarios and seek different reliefs.  

The petition filed by Potape seeks orders of the court to nullify Undialu’s election and declare him the duly elected member.

Governor Philip Undialu said till now the Government is yet to pay the landowners after 305 shipments of gas.

He made this call after MRDC issued statements of payment of K15 million to the landowners at the plant site.

He is calling on the National Government to take serious consideration on the following before they even talk about releasing the equity and royalty payments to plant site landowners;

- Pay the K35m promised to pay to Hides PDL1 and Hides PDL7 landowners in 2015;

- Fund clan vetting exercise as a matter of priority;