Mt. Pulag preservation, conservation in danger

BAGUIO CITY -- It is no wonder that bio-pirates have been able to steal and patent several of our country's native plants and animals, including the cancer-treating Philippine yew or Taxus matrana which was reportedly uprooted from Mt. Pulag in Kabayan, Benguet and Patented by researchers from the University of Massachusetts in the US.

While Environment Secretary Antonio Cerilles has been calling on the 105 Protected Areas and Management Boards (PAMB) nationwide to strictly enforce the "no permit, no collection" policy of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in protected areas, the PAMBs may not have any legal personality because the official appointments of PAMB directors still have to be processed and released by the central office.

A case in point is the "interim" PAMB for Mt. Pulag whose latest meeting last March 24 at a local hotel here was attended by DENR National Integrated Protected Areas Program (NIPAP) Director Antonio Manila.

The Mt. Pulag PAMB members, led by Benguet Provincial Fiscal Felix Cabading, complained that they have been drawing up measures to protect the sacred mountain of the surrounding Ibaloi, Kankanaey and Kalanguya tribes for an entire year now without any formal or legal appointment.

What more, The STAR learned that the now monthly Pulag "interim PAMB meetings" have been off limits to the press, with the "Mt. Pulag superintendent" -- one Lucy Exconde -- questioning The STAR's presence in the weekend meeting and asking The STAR to step out of the room to discuss what she called "a breach, actually" while the "interim' members were hotly debating their status with the DENR officials present.

Cabading complained that the group has been waiting for their official appointment for an entire year now but that the DENR secretariat -- which is headed by Lucy Exconde -- has been foot-dragging in processing their request to be officially recognized so that their motions and projects for the 11,500-hectare protected park could be legally enforceable.

Mt. Pulag -- which hosts 528 documented flora species and 76 bird species, 30 of them endemic -- is a protector's nightmare as it straddles 15 barangays in three municipalities spread over three provinces -- Benguet, Ifugao and Nueva Vizcaya.

"If our appointments are not released officially, we are on shaky foundation. We are making very momentous decisions here," stressed Cabading who proposed a stop to the holding of Pulag PAMB meetings until the "interim directors" shall have been granted legal personality.

Cabading was seconded by Cordillera Executive Board (CEB) Director Gaspar Cayat: "Awan ti sir-sirbi ti PAMB (this PAMB is inutile). People think we are just milking cows."

Lawyer Frederico Andaya, Nueva Vizcaya Povincial Planning and Development Officer, echoed their sentiments, saying that in the six years that he has been attending DENR's Mt. Pulag-related meetings, "Panay nga plano (it's all plans)... we might be discussing and discussing without legal basis."

Also present in the meeting -- which was modernized by DENR-CAR Asst. Executive Director for Legal Affairs Romeo Bravo -- were Vice Mayor Marilyn Carreon of Tinoc, Ifugao; Mayor Ernesto Maluday of Kabayan, and Dr. Julie Cabato of the Baguio Regreening Movement.