Group seeks changes to Mt. Isarog project

Written by Danny O. Calleja / Correspondent

IRIGA CITY - Tanggol-Kalikasan, a non-government organization (NGO) based here, wants to change the way a watershed agro-forestry project in Mt. Isarog is applied.
Changes in how the P129-million project is done should make it run in line with policies and guidelines on proper conduct.
Otherwise, doubts would continue to plague the project as some quarters are already pointing to questionable dealings in the way it is being implemented, Jim Monge, Tanggol-Kalikasan community coordinator, said.
“We wanted President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to be aware of this so that necessary corrective measures are applied,” Monge said.
Perhaps, the President could order an investigation so that the public gets to know what is happening with the reforestation program, he said.
The organizational setup and the nature and present status of private contractors should be looked into, Monge said.
Mt. Isarog has been divided into zones such as reforestation, strict protection and multiple-use zones that exact locations and specific zones of the projects should be determined, and the actual cost of each contract and bidding results should be made public, he said.
Monge said the amount of mobilization funds already released for each project should also be made public, as well as original copies of the memorandum of agreement the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) signed with contractors.
It should be a policy in the reforestation project to plant only indigenous species, not imported varieties, to ensure that the trees would survive, he said.
Each project should have gone through deliberations with the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) in the area, he said.
Projects that are now ongoing seemed to have ignored requirements under the National Integrated Protected Areas Systems Act of 1992 casting doubts on the integrity of implementation. “We wanted corrections so that those doubts are erased,” Monge added.
Mayor Alexis San Luis of nearby Pili town in Camarines Sur agrees with Tanggol-Kalikasan’s position, saying it may be possible that rules in the implementation of the projects have been violated. A part of Mt. Isarog is in Camarines Sur.
“Our local government unit [LGU] is preparing a petition for the DENR and the President with the intention of discussing and properly resolving the alleged irregularities,” San Luis said.
His town is among the LGUs of six municipalities and a city that form the Mt. Isarog PAMB—created to protect the environment and forest resources of the dormant volcano.
A DENR employee for over 15 years before becoming mayor of this provincial capital, San Luis said his administration is constantly monitoring activities in Mt. Isarog and keeps a standing comanagement agreement with the DENR in undertaking a reforestation project on a 161-hectare watershed area. He, however, bewailed the noninclusion by the DENR of community-based organizations in the reforestation projects in violation of a PAMB resolution that favors awarding project contracts to such groups.
“It is essential and significant to tap these organizations in reforestation projects to ensure satisfactory accomplishments,” San Luis said.