MOUNT PULAG’S summit draws tourists each year because of its beautiful sunrise. Government recently picked it for an improved conservation and management plan. ELMER KRISTIAN DAUIGOY/ CONTRIBUTOR
BAGUIO CITY—Mining has reached the slopes of Mt. Pulag, Luzon’s highest peak and one of the country’s richest biodiversity areas, and the government has started moving to save the mountain from small-scale miners, the Benguet police said on Sunday.
Police in Kabayan town have alerted the office of the provincial prosecutor about the existence of 100 pocket mine portals that remain active in Poblacion and Gusaran, whose territories extend to parts of Mt. Pulag, said Senior Supt. Rodolfo Azurin Jr., Benguet police director.
Fay Apil, acting Cordillera director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), said the agency had confirmed the mining operations and had issued cease and desist orders in Kabayan in early 2013.
Azurin said police had also started interviewing residents to establish the ownership and legality of the operations of these mine tunnels.
“We are in the process of verifying [if the miners were granted] permits and we have been identifying suspects [who defied a 2013 cease order] in coordination with the MGB,” Azurin said.
Apil said the MGB was hoping for support from the local government, given the vulnerability of the Kabayan environment.
Benguet police have been monitoring activities at Mt. Pulag, home to rare plants and animals, after discovering last year that farmers had cleared patches of pine forests to expand vegetable gardens in areas they claim to be part of the Kabayan ancestral domain.
The government declared 11,500 hectares of the mountain as a national park in 1987 under the supervision of the Protected Area Management Board. The area straddles towns in Benguet, Ifugao and Nueva Vizcaya provinces.
According to the Benguet provincial website, the Kabayan council earlier issued Resolution No. 34-06 urging then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo “to recognize and return the management of Mt. Pulag National Park to the municipal government of Kabayan and its people,” partly to honor the town’s assertion that it is the ancestral domain of the Ibaloi, Kankanaey and Kalanguya of the area.
The town believes its people have been considered squatters in their ancestral lands for too long, the website said.
But the Kabayan ancestral domain has territorial issues with neighboring towns, like Bokod, which have yet to be resolved, Benguet Rep. Ronald Cosalan said.
Provincial officials met last December to discuss legal and legislative strategies in order to arm Mt. Pulag’s protected areas against intrusions.
Clarence Baguilat, Cordillera regional director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said the agency also met with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, which issues ancestral land titles, and the Land Registration Authority to propose a harmonization of laws affecting Mt. Pulag’s conservation programs.