DENR, settlers fight over forest

BAGUIO CITY—Government officials and families, who settled inside a community forest in the Benguet provincial capital of La Trinidad, are locked in a standoff after the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) ordered its Benguet office to secure the forestland.

DENR workers welded the front gates leading to the 48.6-hectare Puguis communal forest on Thursday, following protest rallies staged on Dec. 6 by environmentalists who denounced the growing settlement in the area.

This was because of a bureaucratic snag involving the issuance of land titles in the area. Records showed that 6.2 ha have been titled and 32.4 ha more have been covered with tax declarations.

The DENR closed the forest on Friday, after discovering that settlers sawed off the welded sections of the gates, said Rainier Balbuena, community environment and natural resources officer of Baguio City, which has jurisdiction over the area.

On Saturday, settlers destroyed parts of the gate, prompting the town government to put boulders on the access road, which was being used to bring in building materials into the forest, he said. —VINCENT CABREZA AND KIMBERLIE QUITASOL