Aquino told saving Sierra Madre solution to floods

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—In battling floods in Metro Manila and nearby provinces, it is not enough for government to dredge and widen rivers or build large water traps. It must also save the Sierra Madre forests in Luzon by stopping logging, mining, quarrying and locating garbage dumps there.

Fr. Pete Montallana, chair of the Save Sierra Madre Network Alliance (SSMNA), suggested this in an open letter to President Aquino as the government “seemed to forget giving attention to the root of the floods—the unabated destruction of the Sierra Madre.”

Montallana, a Franciscan missionary, said the protection of the mountain range is in line with Mr. Aquino’s Proclamation

No. 413, which declared every Sept. 26 the “Save Sierra Madre Day.” Sierra Madre is regarded as the country’s longest, biggest and most biologically diverse mountain range.

The proclamation, however, is not matched by action because corruption persists at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Montallana said.

“In the appeals to you to change your DENR secretary, lobby groups have won to retain him in exchange for the promise to deliver 5 million votes for your senatorial candidates [in the 2013 elections],” Montallana said.

What lobby?

In a telephone interview on Thursday, Environment Secretary Ramon Paje said no such promise or lobby groups exist. The DENR, he said, has been serious in protecting the country’s forests, especially those in Sierra Madre.

Paje said the total log ban enforced through the President’s Executive Order No. 23 was able to save 148 million board feet of wood yearly, which was the total volume formerly allowed to be cut by 180 companies holding integrated forest management agreements, or logging permits.

Four of the companies—Pateco, Luzmatim, San Roque and IDC—are based in the Sierra Madre but they have stopped operating in Aurora and Isabela, Paje said.

The 197 illegal logging hotspots are down to 28, mostly in Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Sur, Agusan del Norte, Compostela Valley, Davao Oriental, Davao del Norte, Quezon, Abra, Pangasinan, Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental.

“The Aquino administration has shown serious political will,” Paje said. “What success does Father Pete want? Illegal logging is a 50-year-old activity and we are trying to solve this in one year since EO 23. He should listen to the facts.”

Carabao logging

Paje said “carabao logging,” or the use of carabaos to haul illegally cut trees, is not tolerated. The agency has filed more than 500 cases since 2010, seeing conviction in at least 72 cases in northern Luzon provinces like Isabela.

He has canceled 1,606 mining claims and not signed any mining contracts yet.

In the latest Environmental Performance Index conducted by the World Economic Forum, European Commission, Yale University and Columbia University, the Philippines rose from the 50th place to 42nd among the “strong environment performers.”

The anticorruption drive in the last two years has led to the dismissal of 12 DENR employees and the suspension of 24 others, he said. At least 172 more are facing dismissal and 60 others are being investigated, said Paje. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon