Forest protection

BENCHWARMER
Ramon Dacawi

Benguet Gov. Nestor Fongwan will set a dialogue with his counterparts in Ifugao and Mt. Province to address the continuing destruction of forests within their common borders by slash-and-burn or vegetable farmers who invoke ancestral claims over the same.

Presiding last Wednesday as out-going chairman of the Regional Peace and Order Council, Fongwan asked officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples to help him convene the meeting.

“They should stop expanding their vegetable farmlands,” Fongwan said of upland tillers, adding “usto metten a (enough is enough)”.

He noted a concerted campaign must be pushed as violators of forestry laws just shift to the side of neighboring provinces when Benguet steps up its own drive to protect its portions of the region’s pine and mossy forests.

Fongwan cited in particular their continuing intrusion into Mt. Pulag, the country’s second highest peak, the base of which straddles Benguet, Ifugao and Nueva Vizcaya. The peak is deemed sacred among the Ibalois of Benguet.

The governor pressed for more guards, especially within the mossy forests. DENR regional executive director Clarence Baguilat, however, explained his agency is no longer fielding guards in areas covered by ancestral domain titles (CADT), “as it is the indigenous peoples who are supposed to take care of their ancestral lands”.

Baguilat cited the need for local government units “to be serious about out zoning”, an issue which he said can be taken up during the inter-province dialogue.

The probability of CADTs being used to justify the conversion of forests into farms makes more urgent the call for an inter-province meeting to discuss the powers given to the indigenous peoples under the CADT, Fongwan said.

“I would like to believe the IPRA (Indigenous Peoples Rights Act) is not an instrument to destroy the forest,” the governor stressed. “Let us harmonize the powers given to the indigenous peoples. They are not given the blanket authority to destroy the forest.”

He was referring to the requirement for an Ancestral Domain Sustainable Protection Plan in accordance with the traditional resource management systems that goes with the issuance of a CADT and Section 58 of the IPRA on the maintenance of critical watersheds, wildlife sanctuaries, protected areas and forest cover within the ancestral domain.

NCIP regional director Amador Batay-an pointed out that the issue raised by Gov. Fongwan all the more gives reason for the renewed push towards autonomy for the Cordillera.

“That’s why we should have autonomy so that we can discuss and agree within the regional level, to give us more authority to act and decide on matters peculiar to our region,” Batay-an said.

As explained by Baguio city mayor Mauricio Domogan, autonomy would empower the region to act on issues directly affecting the Cordillera with the devolution of functions and policies which, under the present administrative set-up, emanate from the national government.

This would mean that the issuance of CADTs, water rights, mining exploration permits and development policies covering the Cordillera would be dictated by the region instead of the national government.

Expressing his support to the autonomy push, Fongwan said Benguet is presenting inputs to the draft of the organic act for the protection of the province’s share of benefits from the exploitation of its natural resources.

Fongwan bewailed the reduction of the province’s national wealth tax share, particularly its one percent share from the gross sale of electric power produced by its water resources.

He said that without the knowledge of Benguet as host community, Congress, through the Renewable Energy Act, whittled down the tax due to 40 percent of one percent of the net from the sale of hydroelectric power generated in the province.

The province, he said, is also clamoring for a redefinition of the term “host community” according to a river basin concept to entitle the province to a share from the one-centavo-per-kilowatt-hour fund from the operation of the San Roque Dam in Pangasinan.

As per the implementing rules of the Eletric Power Industry Reform Act, “host community” is limited to where the dam is located. San Roque Dam is in San Manuel and San Nicolas, Pangasinan even as the water that runs its turbines comes from Benguet.