LUCBAN, Quezon—With the strong opposition from religious pilgrims, nature-trippers and local officials, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has decided not to implement the collection of the increased entrance fee at the base of mystical Mt. Banahaw.
“There was strong resistance from the public so we decided not to push through with the collection,” Alfredo Palencia, DENR-Quezon chief, said in a phone interview on Friday.
Insp. Monica Abang, Dolores police chief, said there was no fee collection activity at the DENR ticketing at the entrance of the mountain village of Kinabuhayan in the said town.
“There was no DENR staff at the booth,” she said over the phone.
Palencia did not disclose their next course of action on when to start collecting the P50 entrance fee as embodied in the resolution by the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) last year.
Salud Pangan, DENR park superintendent for Mt. Banahaw and adjacent Mt. Cristobal, explained in a text message on Friday that the cancellation of the fee collection was due to “hostile situation and threatening messages.”
In a phone interview on Wednesday, Pangan described the situation in Kinabuhayan as “very volatile.”
On March 28, the glass window of the ticketing booth was destroyed by still unidentified suspects. One of the members of Pangan’s staff had also received threatening message through mobile phone.
Threat of violence
“The text was a warning that violence will be inflicted to us if we continue to collect fees,” she told the Inquirer. “But we’re determined to implement the law because it is our duty as government employees.”
Due to extreme heat generated by the issue, Pangan said there would be no collection of fee for this year’s Holy Week season.
She said the PAMB would hold an emergency meeting to address the issue.
On April 2014, the PAMB, a multisectoral government body tasked with monitoring state-declared protected areas, approved the increase of the entrance fee from the former P20, which was the amount collected last year, to P50 starting this year.
The PAMB is authorized by law to collect fees for its Integrated Protected Area Fund.
The entrance fee will be collected yearlong and not only during Holy Week.
Visitors will only have access to government allowed areas at the base of the mountain in Kinabuhayan and Sta. Lucia village. Some of the areas had been declared “multiple use zone,” for praying, camping and nature-tripping. The zone is open to the public throughout the year.
New fee
The start of the collection for the new fee was supposed to start last Palm Sunday. But in a visit to Kinabuhayan on Wednesday, the DENR ticketing booth remained inactive of any collection activity.
In an interview on Wednesday, Romeo Diala, village chieftain of Kinabuhayan, said majority of the more than 2,000 villagers signed a petition to the DENR to stop the collection of the new fee.
“The old P20 is still okay with us but not the new fee,” he said.
It was learned that the local government of Dolores had also manifested their opposition to the new fee.
Almost all religious pilgrims who have been flocking in the mountain villages of Kinabuhayan and Sta. Lucia since Sunday also opposed the new fee.
“Why should we be asked to pay that much before we can pray in a sacred public place?” Rosa Moreno, a member of a religious sect based in Laguna province, told the Inquirer on Wednesday.
She branded the entrance fee collection as “anti-Christ.”
Mountaineer volunteers who have been helping the government in the protection of Mt. Banahaw against irresponsible Holy Week pilgrims have also protested the increase of entrance fee to the mystical mountain.
“That P50 entrance fee and additional payment for pitching our tent is too much,” a local mountaineer had told the Inquirer.
Several mountaineer volunteers interviewed by this correspondent had also assailed the increase of the entrance fee for volunteers.
“We’re there not for a leisure stay but to help the undermanned DENR forest rangers in protecting Banahaw against trespassers, vandals and other lawbreakers,” another local mountaineer had said.
Pangan argued that the collection of the controversial fee was approved and the corresponding resolution duly signed by its board members that also included representatives from the local government, Diala and other chairs of different villages at the base of Banahaw.
“The DENR is surprised that that we’re now being left alone in its implementation,” she said Wednesday.
Inhabited by spirits
The PAMB closed the mountain peak in 2004, citing the deterioration of Banahaw’s environment and vegetation due to abuse and tons of garbage left behind by trekkers. The peak will remain close to the public until February 2016.
Despite the prohibition, devotees and adventure seekers have continued to sneak to the peak.
To many, Banahaw,which has a land area of 11,300, is inhabited by spirits, elementals and otherworldly beings. Many believers trek its slopes in the hope of miracles, particularly during the Lenten season.
The mountain straddles the municipalities of Lucban, Tayabas, Sariaya, Candelaria and Dolores in Quezon and parts of the towns of Rizal, Nagcarlan, Liliw and Majayjay and San Pablo City in Laguna province.
The DENR’s four forest rangers—two each in Laguna and Quezon—are augmented by volunteers, police and Army soldiers to implement the off-limits order during Holy Week.
But with lots of hidden trails to the top and the determination of the pilgrims to pray at the top to become nearer to the Supreme God, the implementation of the order will be a tall order. RC