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1999 not too kind onenvironment in Mindanao -1
Source: Inquirer
Author: None
Date: 2000-01-08
 
FIRST, the good news: two Philippine

eagles conceived through natural

means (though in captivity), were

hatched last year at the Philippine

Eagle Center in Malagos, Calinan, Davao City.



Pangarap was hatched on Feb. 23 and a still unnamed

newly-hatched eagle, on Dec. 23.



Two more eggs of these endangered species and national

symbol are expected to hatch this month and next month--the

first in the wild, the second, at the Eagle Center.



Now for the bad news: The eagles born last year, like eagles

Pag-asa and Pagkakaisa (both hatched in 1992 through artificial

insemination), are doomed to live in cages forever, because their

natural habitat--the forests--are gone.



Mindanao's disappearing forests took center stage among

environmental concerns last year--with 1999 starting and ending

with floods.



The year also saw the return of ''people power'' against logging,

through human barricades, in Bukidnon after an 11-year hiatus.

The barricades spread to Cagayan de Oro City and Lanuza,

Surigao del Sur.



The barricades, after a week, got the Ventura Timber Corp. to

sign an agreement to stop operations and abandon its

220-hectare concession area in three barangays there.



Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado sided with the barricaders

across the island, urging them to continue in the hope a total

log ban which he, as senator, had fought for, would this time

pass.



Mercado also publicly urged the military and police to ''side with

the people.''



But Environment Secretary Antonio Cerilles, the lone

Mindanaoan in the Estrada Cabinet, ruled out a total log ban,

opting for selective logging instead even as his President has

repeatedly said he favored the ban.



Cerilles, for a time the most controversial of Estrada's Cabinet

members, was reappointed in January after he was bypassed by

the Commission on Appointments. A three-term Zamboanga del

Sur representative to Congress and campaign manager for

Western Mindanao of then presidential candidate Joseph

Estrada, Cerilles was later confirmed by the CA.



Pleas for him to stop the transport of logs from Lanao del Sur

into Misamis Oriental (passing through Bukidnon where a log

ban has been imposed since 1988 and Cagayan de Oro City) fell

on deaf ears.



Not even the pleas of Bukidnon Bishop Honesto Pacana for him

to look into the undersized and freshly cut logs loaded in trucks

from Lanao del Sur's forests were heeded by him.



Here are glimpses of what happened last year:



Zamboanga del Sur



In Cerilles' province, the entry of illegally cut logs, especially in

Pagadian City has even become more rampant. Many sawmill

operators have sprouted in the city, mostly owned, reportedly,

by Cerilles' political supporters.



Agusan del Sur



In Agusan del Sur, flash floods swept the province from Jan. 10

to Feb. 10. At least 15 were killed, 40,000 rendered homeless.



In the entire Caraga region, the death toll from the floods

reached 39.



A month later, hundreds of flood victims in neighboring

Esperanza and La Paz towns suffered from hunger. They lost

everything they planted in their farms.



In Barangay Dacutan in Esperanza, residents survived on

kangkong leaves. In Barangay Sabang Adgawan, a riverside

village in La Paz town, residents survived on the fruits of takay,

a wild plant floating on lakes and marshlands, as substitute for

corn grits. Takay fruits taste like yam when cooked but it takes a

week of preparation before these could be edible.



The floods were blamed on continued forest denudation

brought about by rampant illegal logging in the province.



But environment officials said the flash floods were not to be

blamed on logging but on a ''natural phenomenon.''



Sergio Aresta, Provincial Environment and Natural Resources

Officer, and Serafin Reyes, community environment and natural

resources officer, said the topography of the region and years

of heavy siltation in the Agusan River were ''established facts

which greatly contributed to the swelling of the river.'' (to be continued)

 

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