Slash-and-burn farmers caught red-handed in Banahaw

LUCENA CITY, Philippines—The government rehabilitation efforts on Mount Banahaw in Quezon province is being threatened with the resurgence of “kaingeros” (slash-and-burn farmers), according to a local official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Salud Pangan, park superintendent for Banahaw, said a combined DENR, police and military operation on Saturday led to the arrest of three farmers suspected of being engaged in destructive farming atop the mountain inside the territorial jurisdiction of Barangay (village) Lalo in Tayabas City.

“I warned farmers to stop their illegal activities in Mount Banahaw. Their destructive farming practice will negate the multi-sectoral efforts to protect and rehabilitate the mountain,” Pangan said in a phone interview Monday.

A report from the Tayabas police station identified the suspects as farmers Eustaquio Villanueva, Sonny Liquegan and Nardo Cabañas, all residents of the locality.

The suspects were arrested in the act of cutting trees mostly hardwood species while clearing the area for farming, said Pangan, quoting the police report said.

He said the three farmers yielded several cutting equipment like axe, bolos and pesticide sprayer.

“Based from our inventory, the trio had already cut around 70 trees inside the three parcels of land that they had been clearing,” Pangan said.

She said the suspects would later burn the areas and convert them into vegetable farm land.

Pangan said the three were slapped with violation of Republic Act 7586 (National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act of 1992) and Presidential Decree 75 (Revised Forestry Code of the Philippines).

In 2004, the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) for Mount Banahaw started a a five-year program to resurrect the mountain’s resources which were damaged by slash-and-burn farmers and visitors who littered the place with trash.

With barbed wires, the PAMB sealed off several trails leading to certain areas in the bosom of Banahaw. In 2009, it extended the closure period by three years to sustain the mountain’s rehabilitation.