Protected landscape assures Cebu of enough water supply

Cebuanos and their descendants are now assured of enough water supply after the Central Cebu Protected Landscape Act of 2007 was approved by the Senate last Thursday.

This bill authored by Cebu first district Rep. Eduardo Gullas is an act establishing the five major watersheds - the Buhisan Watershed and Forest Reserve, the Mananga Watershed and Forest Reserve, the Sudlon National Park, the Central Cebu National Park and the Kotkot-Lusaran Watershed and Forest Reserve - in the cities of Cebu, Talisay, Toledo and Danao and in the municipalities of Minglanilla, Consolacion, Liloan, Compostela and Balamban into one protected area now known as the Central Cebu Protected Landscape.

It is now waiting to be signed by the President into law.

Gullas, in a press conference in his office at the University of the Visayas, expressed his thanks to the legislators who have been supportive of his bill.

Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal received his personal copy of the bill yesterday. It was in the prelate's conference room, Gullas said, that majority of the multi-sectoral meetings for this bill had been conducted. He said he is also grateful to the Cebu United for Sustainable Water and the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines-Business Group-Cebu chapter.

With this bill closer to becoming a law, Gullas said Cebu "will have water for the next generations to come" as its goal is "protecting, conserving, maintaining and rehabilitating" the more than 28,000 hectares of areas covered by this legislation.

This act places the management of Cebu's five protected areas under one policy-making body called the Central Cebu Protected Landscape-Protected Area Management Board, but Gullas said there will be an "executive committee" to especially oversee its implementation. - Liv G. Campo/MEEV