BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR-CAR) is studying various options, including the filing of the petition for writ of kalikasan, for the preservation and protection of the Mount Pulag National Park, the highest mountain peak in Luzon, for the benefit of upcoming generations.
DENR-CAR regional executive director Engr. Paquito Moreno admitted that the current situation in Mount Pulag is complicated because of the interplay of various laws, rules and regulations being implemented by concerned government agencies, thus, whatever solutions that will be crafted should also be aligned with various issuances geared towards improving the state of the environment in the area.
“We are closely working with concerned sectors in studying what will be the best option to undertake to ensure the sustainable preservation and protection of Mount Pulag. We do not want that we will lose its forest cover that is why we want a holistic approach in preserving and protecting the watershed” Director Moreno stressed.
The DENR-CAR official argued that the agency is aggressive in the implementation of the pertinent provisions of the National Integrated protected Areas Systems Act to safeguard the remaining undisturbed portions of forests and watersheds in the different parts of the region being the watershed cradle of Northern Luzon so that further encroachments and expansions of vegetable farms will have to be limited within the delineated and marked forest boundary line.
However, he claimed that the efforts to preserve and protect the forest is affected by the pertinent provisions of Republic Act (RA) 8371 or the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) being involved by the indigenous peoples and indigenous cultural communities on their ancestral domain covered by certificates of ancestral domain title (CADTs) and certificates of ancestral land Domain (CAD) allowing them ownership of parcels of lands within the watershed which are the ones slowly or rapidly encroaching into the forested portions of the watershed.
According to him, people living in the communities within the Mount Pulag watershed could now easily expand their vegetable farms because of claims that the areas they are tilling are part of their domain.
Further, Moreno argued that the construction of roads leading to some portions of the watershed in the guise of being farm to market roads or tourism road projects among others opened the opportunities for enterprising individuals to expand their farms which now threaten the supposed undisturbed portions of Mount Pula which now poses a serious threat to the state of the environment in the area.
Earlier, concerned sectors advocating for the sustainable preservation and protection of the rapidly deteriorating state of some critical portions of the watershed had been calling on environmentalists to spearhead the filing of the necessary petition for the issuance of the writ of kalikasan to compel stakeholders to work for the preservation and protection of the remaining forested area.
Sources, who requested anonymity, disclosed that even portions of the watershed near the ranger station are now being deforested and that the said areas are converted into vegetable farms which should not be the case in the first place.
On the other hand, individuals frequenting the various communities within Mount Pulag described the destruction of the watershed as massive because of the unabated use of units of heavy equipment that could easily remove the fully-grown trees and flatten areas ready for the planting of crops.
Moreno agrees to the observations raised by environmentalists that perpetrators of the expansion of vegetable farms are not merely farmers but they belong to organized groups who are well funded and supported that is why they are brave enough to pursue their destructive activities that compromise the overall condition of Mount Pulag.
He expressed hope that the holistic approach to preserve and protect Mount Pulag will be crafted by the concerned sectors, in coordination with the local governments and the concerned government agencies, the soonest so that the massive destruction of portions of the watershed will be abated and that the massive conversion of forest lands to agricultural farms will no longer intrude into the undisturbed portions of the watershed. By Dexter A. See
