MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Risa Hontiveros on Thursday filed a resolution for hearings on reported incidents of violence against environment defenders as well as land-grabbing, illegal logging, and quarrying in and around the Masungi Georeserve and the rest of the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape.
Hontiveros pointed out in Philippine Senate Resolution No. 231 that the area is home to some 400 species of flora and fauna as well as 60-million-year-old limestone formations.
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"The repeated different types of violence that the guardians of Masungi are experiencing is worrying. We, in government, have a duty to defend the interest of this conservation site as it is a protected area established under Republic Act 11038 or the Expanded Integrated Protected Area Systems Law. We cannot take our environmental defenders for granted," Hontiveros said.
On September 19, more than 30 armed men, apparently employed by Sinagtala Security Agency Services were encamped along the Marikina-Infanta Highway, within the vicinity of the conservation area.
Volunteers and employees of Masungi Georeserve Foundation Inc. have also reported threats and harassment by groups whom they linked to illegal quarrying, logging, and land-grabbing in the area. Two park rangers were wounded in 2021 in a shooting related to the land dispute.
SPECIAL REPORT: Protecting the protectors and the Marikina watershed
Hontiveros said that the Senate committee on the environment was told in 2020 that land-grabbing and deforestation in the Upper Marikina watershed contributed to severe flooding brought by typhoons Rolly and Ulysses.
"Besides peace and order, this is also a matter of valuing the natural resources of our country. The biodiversity and integrity of the area's natural environment [should] be saved and secured. I have been to Masungi myself and I have seen the scale and extent that we must protect and preserve,” Hontiveros said.
"We know that our natural resources help us curb the effects of climate change...We are all stewards of our environment. Let's not wait for another tragedy before we seriously take care of our environment, our only home."
READ: A year on, Kasiglahan folk still haunted by ‘Ulysses’ flooding
— Franco Luna with reports from Gaea Katreena Cabico