On the heels of the devastation brought by Typhoon Ulysses, the conservation team in Baras, Rizal calls on the government for help in protecting a portion of the Upper Marikina watershed.
According to the Masungi Georeserve team on Nov. 15, armed guards of the private corporation Rublou Inc. and its renewable energy subsidiary Green Atom continue to be present inside the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape. This, despite the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) issuing a show cause order to the company in October and dismantling the fences and structures that its armed personnel built in the area.
Instead of ceasing operations, the Masungi Georeserve team said that the company’s guards have “more than doubled” and reportedly continue to patrol at least 500 hectares of the watershed.
“AKALA MO HINDI KITA KAKALADKARIN?”
We do not want conflict. But when conservation efforts are undermined & team is threatened, we will fight back. Today we saw more armed guards of Rublou patrolling vast tracts of the watershed w/o permits.
Statement: https://t.co/fSMbj0C56e pic.twitter.com/KAm6zYZjv4
— Masungi Georeserve (@MasungiGeo) November 15, 2020
Previously, the private company stated that it is only helping the Dumagat-Remontados tribe who claims ownership over the area that they had fenced off. But the Masungi team reported that in a statement released on Oct. 30 and signed by 24 elders, chieftains and officers of the tribe, the Dumagat-Remontados group refuted involvement in the company’s deployment of armed guards. They also denied hiring as legal counsel the lawyer who signed an “official statement from the tribe” released by the company.
The Masungi team also said that they had met with the tribe and promised to work with them for the conservation of the watershed’s critical sections with respect to their rights over the area. According to the team, approximately 500 hectares of the Masungi project site is part of the tribe’s ongoing ancestral domain title application.
HELP NEEDED: ARMED GUARDS, RUBLOU INC./GREEN ATOM FENCE MASUNGI GEOPARK ⚠️
This morning, we found a portion of the restoration project area fenced & installed with guards carrying long, high-powered weapons, as we were on the way to…
See full post:https://t.co/QJXWnnnoSo pic.twitter.com/h53lPvnO4E
— Masungi Georeserve (@MasungiGeo) October 23, 2020
With the disastrous flooding last week because of typhoon Ulysses, the Masungi Georeserve team calls on President Duterte and the DENR to help protect the watershed’s integrity by ordering the company to vacate the protected area which also houses a patch of Benguet pine trees grown by the government from the 1970s.
The team is also asking the National Bureau of Investigation and the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission to help “address the wholesale buying and selling of forest land and land scams in the protected area.” In a previous interview, DENR’s undersecretary said that some groups have recently “become bold in claiming land ownership due to monitoring limitations of the government.”
#ULYSSESPH: A NATURAL OR MAN-MADE CALAMITY? 🚨🌀
The Upper Marikina Watershed is in Stage 4 of forest death. The mountains are bare or just grasslands and the soils are degraded.
Some 10 years after Ondoy & the its declaration as a protected area… https://t.co/1CuK8yUOSw pic.twitter.com/ujgdOU8NeW
— Masungi Georeserve (@MasungiGeo) November 13, 2020
“Protecting our people starts with protecting the integrity of our forests and ecosystem which shield us from floods, landslides and pandemics. The presence of armed guards and arbitrary occupation of forest land pose a threat to the safety of park rangers and volunteers, and disrupt urgent restoration work,” stated the Masungi Georeserve team.
“In the past months and through the COVID-19 pandemic, rising cases of illegal logging, charcoal-making and illegal occupation have been monitored in reforestation areas, necessitating increased monitoring and protection efforts in high-risk zones,” the team added.
[WARNING: This post may be depressing]. We are gutted to find more remnants of illegal logging near reforestation areas recently fenced by Rublou Inc. While it claims to have been protecting this area for decades, all we find is deforestation &bare soil.https://t.co/85DOPDP4x7 pic.twitter.com/8p5xT8E6d6
— Masungi Georeserve (@MasungiGeo) November 5, 2020
Occupying 26,000 hectares in Rizal, the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape is vital in regulating water flow towards the National Capital Region. Protected from settlement, entry, sale and disposition since 1904, it was then declared a protected area under Proclamation No. 296 issued in 2001.
Despite this, the watershed’s natural ability to store stormwater has been affected by the continued destruction of its forest. “In 2009, Ondoy unleashed its fury. Due in large part to a failing watershed, Ondoy caused massive loss of property and lives,” wrote the Masungi Georeserve team in a Facebook post.
As of writing, Rublou Inc. has yet to make an official response to Masungi Georeserve’s latest statement.
Header photo from Masungi Georeserve’s official Facebook page
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Writer: YANN MAGCAMIT
