Mayor hits forest guards over MP watershed fire

By Dexter See  

BAUKO, Mountain Province - Mayor Abraham B. Akilit criticized forest guards and various communities from Bontoc and Sabangan towns for inability to put off recent fire that spread to Mount Kalawitan until it reached the mossy forest of Mount Data.

“If the Bantay Gubat guards had the courtesy to pay a call to the municipal officials, we were supposed to have crafted a unified and comprehensive program to help minimize forest fires, especially in watersheds, which pose serious threat to state of our environment,”Akilit said.

“The fire from Sabangan should have been put off if there was a fire line or Bantay Gubat guards could have led the people in putting off the fire,” Akilit said, adding it reached Bauko. 

The Cordillera office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources recently hired services of former members of the Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army as Bantay Gubat forest guards to reduce damage inflicted by unscrupulous individuals to the region’s watersheds and forests and for them to have a decent source of livelihood pursuant to the closure agreement signed by the CPLA and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) for conversion of the armed group into a socio-economic force in 2011.

Akilit, a staunch advocate for environmental preservation and protection when he was regional manager of the National Irrigation Administration in the Cordillera, said for Bauko alone, more than 60 hectares of forest were heavily burned, including the newly planted assorted tree seedlings.

According to Akilit, Bauko officials led people in trying to contain and were able to put off the fire in their end of the fire line .

He said he was wondering where the hired forest guards were who were supposed to have mobilized people in neighboring communities to control the fire and not allow it to spread and inflict heavy damages on  forests in the upper portions of the municipality.

In some cases, Akilit said they had difficult time putting off  huge forest fires because of lack of sufficient firefighting equipment as they only relied on what were available in their communities to control fire.

He said the 3-day forest fire dealt heavy damage to efforts of the government agencies and local governments to bring back greenery of mountains,

Akilit said people must observe discipline in disposing  cigarette butts among combustible materials which could catch fire and spread to nearby villages without being contained.

Akilit said the prolonged dry spell contributed to drying up of forest plants which were easily gutted by fire.

Concerned sectors have been calling for preservation of  remaining forest covers not only as natural come-ons of the province but also the province being one of the watershed cradles of northern Luzon.

Bauko and adjacent towns in Buguias, Benguet and Tinoc, Ifugao are headwaters of four major rivers: Chico, Agno, Abra and Siffu rivers.

These rivers supply irrigation systems not only of Mountain Province but lowland provinces as well as powers electric dams in northern Luzon.

But with unabated burning of mountains, irrigation officials said watersheds and other water sources are at risk of producing less water if not drying up.