Pains and gains in forest management

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March Fianza

BANGUED, Abra – In a small crowd of foresters sharing spirits in coffee cups after a long and tiring field work, every exchange boils down to forest management and love of work. There, one hears about unknown species of Narra and where they thrive in the Cordillera, listen to stories of failed earth-balling procedures of the Benguet Pine, incidentally stumble on stories about illegal logging and lumber transported inside gas tankers and even Pajeros, and come across internal problems that sometimes no one wants to hear.

In this case, one finds real reason why men dedicated to their work end up gripping shot glasses after a long day. It is not because they look for the taste of wine and liquor, for which they are at times labeled as drunks, but they are after friendship that becomes more rounded, work-related problems are forgotten for a moment, bonds are strengthened and dreams are a bit fulfilled in every swig. Generally, a gathering of foresters is very jolly.

            

For field foresters who encounter different shades of life in the communities they go to, the world is not so kind. Many if not all, work overtime trying to finish the day’s report until the wee hours in the morning while others only wait for finished copies that they can, paste and submit them as their own report, never considering the blood, sweat and tears of colleagues that went into the work.

In short, some DENR employees have no dedication to work and are every so often only after the funding that is required by the project. While the government worker’s journey is not smooth sailing, it is also fun sometimes. Along the road, he sees DPWH landscapers trying to make the road shoulders presentable by putting up waiting sheds and coloring the stones with orange, white and blue paint.

Another experience that is considered “strange” by foresters is when they are condemned by hostile kaingin farmers who fear they might be stopped from continuing their agricultural livelihood. Ties between the kaingero and the forester have never been good. The latter looks at the former as one who denudes the forest while on the other hand, the kaingin farmer looks at a DENR man as one who makes arrests.

However sad the situation looks to be, a manuscript on traditional forest protection is being prepared by a technical working group in the DENR composed of Forester Rex Sapla, Engr. Simeon Micklay and Pat Tayaban. This will soon be officially recognized by government after these are adopted as ordinances and become part of the law of a certain municipality that has been practicing indigenous methods on forest management.

In the Cordillera where we have overlapping laws about the mountain region being a forest cradle, it is surprising to note that many minds are not in accord when it comes to forest issues. A case in point is the fact that Cordillera tribes who have been dubbed as “forest dwellers” maliciously and cautiously, or both, have been practicing traditional means of forest management since they set foot on these highlands.

It is noteworthy that because of their indigenous systems, the mountains have maintained their forest cover. But years later, after the first colonizers came, such practices have been disturbed. Philippine forest laws patterned after foreign laws took over indigenous forest protection practices.   

When it comes to travel troubles, the first thing that worries the field man is his finances on the road. The same is true with all other government agencies that continue to exist because of the field assignments that their workers do. Finance personnel do not take into account the real situation on the ground so that in his field assignment, a forester shells out personal money in order to catch up and finish his report before the deadline.

For example, travel time is only computed for five hours from the start of office hours at 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Yet, government accountants do not take into consideration lunch breaks and bus stops. Maybe finance officers think that government workers on travel do not eat and do not make pee or do not relax their kidneys. In most cases, travel time consumes at least two days that includes reaching one’s destination and going home to his love ones.

And so for an assignment that requires five days to beat a deadline, this is shortened to three days as travel time that eats up two days of the schedule, especially for trips to far-flung municipalities in the country.

It all boils down to jurisdiction. We dropped by Calanasan, Apayao and while in this town, a news item created commotion among DENR officials, who were slightly cautioned by Mayor Elias Bulut, proof that news when it is lacking information, sometimes becomes “dangerous.”

According to PENRO Franklin Sapla and CENRO Candido Tuscano, the news item stating about “armed men escorting logs out of the forest” is not exactly true. The logs mentioned in the news item, according to the DENR officials, were in fact apprehended near the boundary of Calanasan and Luna in Apayao, and were being exited somewhere in Pamplona.

There was a confrontation among the policemen that could have resulted in a “firefight.” But the problem encountered by the DENR officials was that the police personnel of Pamplona, Cagayan and Calanasan, Apayao were confused as to who should have authority over the illegal logs, as they were in a quandary as to the source of the contraband. “Both DENR men and the PNP representing their respecting LGUs were only protecting their jurisdiction,” PENRO Sapla explained.

But the issue is only the “tip of the iceberg” hence the report of CENRO Tuscano that he submitted to DENR RED Clarence Baguilat and RTD Augusto Lagon, through Regional Protection Officer Manuel Magkachi, asking for a deeper investigation. Cenro Tuscano also wondered why Pamplona policemen have the gall to stop them from performing their duties as foresters. The logs estimated to have a volume of more than 3,000 cubic meters were moved by utilizing the river that leads to the tri-boundary of Calanasan, Luna and Pamplona.

The forestry officials said the problem has long been settled after the incident that happened sometime in January. As a result, Resolution No. 2013-01 was crafted by the RDC. In the resolution, an inter-regional body tasked to lead in illegal logging arrests in Regions 01, 02, 03 and the Cordillera will be under the Phil. Army.

It will also involve the DENR, LGUs and PNP. A problem mentioned by DENR officials in Apayao was that they were also concerned that without a guiding resolution, agreement or law that comes with a proper funding, those tasked to apprehend illegal lumber and the poachers might become illegal loggers themselves. – ozram.666@gmail.com