The mangroves that protected the islets of Sagay City from the worst of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” were there, no thanks to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), said Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr.
Marañon said the mangroves were planted with local government funds and with the help of private groups like Organization for Industrial, Spiritual and Cultural Advancement, and the Rotary and Lions clubs.
He recalled that when he was a congressman of the second district of Negros Occidental province, he allotted P1 million for the DENR to plant mangrove trees sometime in 1995 to 1996 but it was never implemented. The residents of Barangay Molocaboc in Sagay City, which is made up of the islets of Molocaboc Daku, Molocaboc Diut and Matabas, as well as those living on Suyac Island, had said the mangroves shielded them from the worst of Yolanda.
The islets are part of the 32,000-hectare Sagay Marine Reserve, where massive mangrove reforestation, regeneration of corals and marine habitat, and a strict ban on illegal fishing have long been in force.
Marañon had launched the marine sanctuary in the 1970s when he was mayor of Sagay City.
As the second district congressman, he authored Republic Act No. 9106 that called for the establishment and management of Sagay Marine Reserve.
The law was enacted on April 14, 2001.
The Molocaboc islets are found in the eastern part of Sagay, bound in the north by the Visayan Sea and in the south by the Tañon Strait.
The islets can be reached in 20 to 45 minutes by boat from the Vito and Old Sagay ports.
Molocaboc Daku, 7 kilometers from Vito Sagay in the mainland, has an area of 147 hectares and a population of about 1,600.
Molocaboc Diut has an area of 120 ha and a population of about 600. It is connected to Daku by a footwalk.
The Matabas area is 80 ha and has a population of 250.
Barangay Molocaboc has 500 ha of mangroves, 100 ha of which have been reforested, according to Lilibeth Cordova, an environmentalist who works closely with the island communities.
The 1.8-ha Suyac islet, 3 km from mainland Sagay, has a population of 782 and a 4-ha mangrove area.
Marañon said the oldest mangrove tree in Suyac, said to be 200 years old, was toppled by Yolanda.