IN MAY 2008, the Inquirer caught these men clearing a section of mossy forest in the boundary of Kabayan town, on the way up to Mt. Pulag. Experts say farming has become the biggest threat to the rich biodiversity of Luzon’s tallest peak. EV ESPIRITU/INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON
BAGUIO CITY—The Army has sent soldiers to guard Mt. Pulag, the highest mountain in Luzon, against intrusion and protect one of the country’s last remaining biodiversity preserves, police said on Wednesday.
Members of the Benguet Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) have asked the military to send more soldiers to Mt. Pulag, which straddles several towns in Benguet and Ifugao provinces, after receiving reports that a Benguet clan with ancestral domain claims on sections of the mountain had cleared its forests for vegetable farms.
Mt. Pulag, which was declared a protected national park and conservation area by the late President Corazon Aquino in 1987, is known for its mossy forests and indigenous animal life, particularly the endangered cloud rat.
Members of the Army’s 50th Infantry Battalion, led by Captain Wander Guway, were sent to Mt. Pulag after police identified vulnerable areas of the mountain, said Senior Superintendent Rodolfo Azurin, Benguet police director.
Police also took photographs of forested sites that have been damaged by the expansion of vegetable farms.
An 80-year-old farmer identified in the PPOC report as Arbulos Lamses has been blamed for the intrusion and destruction of prime forests near the boundaries of Kabayan and Bokod towns.
A report from the Benguet provincial environment and natural resources office (Penro) said Lamses hired people to cut trees, excavate the land and build vegetable terraces on sections of Mt. Pulag in Barangay Ekip in Bokod town.
On August 29, a Penro team tried to assess the damage but was turned away by a group of residents, the report said. It said that this part of Mt. Pulag had been cleared for farming and irrigation systems had been set in place.
The team also found 775 board feet of freshly sawn pine lumber in the area.
Bokod Mayor Mauricio Macay asked the PPOC to request for military support to help prevent farm expansion in forested areas there.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines has been providing security to foresters who enforce the log ban policy imposed by President Benigno Aquino III.
Gov. Nestor Fongwan had asked the provincial assessor to study the tax and property documents of Lamses. He said the farmer could not use the certificate of ancestral domain title (CADT) to justify his intrusion into the Mt. Pulag reservation.
The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples issued the CADT to the Bokod villages of Ekip and the Kabayan villages of Tawangan and Lusod, which cover portions of Mt. Pulag.
Unlike a land title, a domain title recognizes communal ownership over large tracts of land, often crossing political boundaries, so clans are also required to draw up land use plans.
Vegetable farms had been described as the real threats to Mt. Pulag, according to a study by University of the Philippines in Los Baños professors Edwino Fernando and Robert Cereno.
Many of these farms had penetrated the mossy forests, going deep into pristine forests at an elevation of 2,500 meters above sea level, they said. With a report from Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon