Threatened village goes after makers of charcoal

From the barangay hall of Sta. Rosa in Laguna’s Alaminos town, Ernesto Sahagun looked at the growing signs of an environmental disaster in Mount Malarayat in the neighboring province of Batangas.

“I can see the cracks in the mountain from where I stand,” he said on his mobile phone. “We know that our village is most susceptible to landslides.”

Recently, the Department of Environment and Natural Resouces produced a geohazard map identifying areas “highly susceptible” to landslides in 58 towns and cities in the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon). Among them is the municipality of Alaminos.

Sta. Rosa is surrounded by the mountain range of Malipunyo, also known as Malarayat. Most of its terrain is sloping. From what it had experienced in the past years, at least three straight days of continuous raining could trigger landslides in the village.

Soil erosion, too

Barangay officials are also worried about possible soil erosion if charcoal-makers keep on cutting trees along the banks of the stream called Puting-Buhangin, the source of water for the entire village.

The geohazard map has prompted them to act against charcoal-making, which, they believe, puts their land at great risks of danger.

Last month, the local leaders imposed a total ban on charcoal-making and trade after meeting with about 30 charcoal-makers. “We told them that they could still make use of the trees that had already been felled, but by next week, we will begin arresting loggers and charcoal-makers,” Sahagun said.

For decades, charcoal-making had been going on in Sta. Rosa, employing families of mostly migrants from Quezon and the Bicol provinces.

Sahagun said poverty might have driven people to illegal logging and charcoal-making, but he wondered how the sacks of charcoal were smuggled out to Manila although government checkpoints had been put up in the province.

As expected, he said, “they were not very happy about the ban but we told them we couldn’t do anything but obey.”

As an alternative, the charcoal-makers were offered livelihood training through the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

Sahagun said the barangay was also working out an arrangement with owners of idle properties, mostly overseas workers in Italy, if these could be temporarily used for growing vegetables and crops.