Angat watershed gets more security to protect trees

CITY OF MALOLOS—The watershed surrounding Angat Dam, source of Metro Manila’s potable water, has been granted more security to preserve its trees.

Bulacan Governor Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado on Friday asked Army soldiers deployed in the area to double its forest protection detail against illegal logging operations there.

Alvarado also asked Colonel Hilario Lagnada, commanding officer of the Army’s 56th Infantry Battalion, to review and improve its checkpoint system, amid reports that timber poaching and charcoal-making continue to take place there in violation of Executive Order No. 23, which reimposes a total log ban in the country.

The governor discussed the new forest protocol when Lagnada and lawyer Rustico de Belen, Bulacan provincial environment and natural resources officer, presented 2,580 board feet of freshly cut lumber that they confiscated from poachers.

Angat Dam, which supplies 97 percent of Manila’s daily water requirements, lies within the 63,000-hectare Angat watershed reservation in Norzagaray town.

“Even people who manufacture and transport charcoal will not be excused from the enforcement of the total log ban. No one is allowed to use forest resources for charcoal. Violators will be prosecuted,” Alvarado said.

He also instructed Senior Superintendent Fernando Mendez, Bulacan police director, to look into reports that armed militia groups are behind illegal logging operations inside the watershed.

He was reacting to information supplied by De Belen and Martin Francisco, Central Luzon Regional Development Council private sector representative for environment protection, that some of the confiscated lumber came from homeowners living near the watershed.

In Baguio City, Mayor Mauricio Domogan washed his hands off a tree-cutting permit issued by the Cordillera office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to a local mall, which drew online criticism from environmentalists who invoke the log ban.

In a statement, Domogan said SM City Baguio had forwarded in 2011 its work program for expanding its parking facility, which would require cutting up to 97 pine trees on Luneta Hill.

Domogan said the city government had asked SM to consider including the development of a central bus terminal, as part of its program.

SM looms over Governor Pack Road, which seven bus companies still use as temporary terminal despite an ordinance that directs them to relocate outside the central business district.—With a report from Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon