Villar vows support for Mindanao towns

Senator Mark Villar vowed on Saturday to work hard to boost the support of the national government to the municipalities in Mindanao.

Villar was in Davao City as a guest speaker for the Mindan- ao-League of Municipalities of the Philippines (MLMP) convention held at Acacia Hotel Davao.

“Andito ako para sa convention ng League of Municipalities at ipakita ang suporta sa lahat ng municipalities in Mindanao.

Maraming salamat at makaasa kayo na gagawin ko ang lahat para dagdagan pa ang suporta ng national government para sa municipalities sa Mindanao,” Villar said in an interview with the

On the bill creating the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF), a sovereign wealth fund that will be used to invest in a wide range of assets, including foreign currencies, fixedincome instruments, domestic and foreign corporate bonds, commercial real estate and infrastructure projects:

So much has been written about deforestation, flooding, erosion, drought, biodiversity loss, endangered species, food insecurity, and watersheds. All have one thing in common: forests.

But despite this fact, we continue to cut down those trees. Some of these are bulldozed to give way to housing programs. Others are chain-sawed for road widening. There are those which are burned to give way to growing crops. In rural areas, they are cut for firewood and charcoal.

When this “pearl of the Orient seas” was rediscovered by Ferdinand Magellan on March 16, 1521, the country was almost totally covered with forest resources distributed throughout the archipelago. These resources provided income, employment, food, medicine, building materials and water as well as a healthy environment.

Statistics show that 54 years after Magellan came to the country, 92% (27.5 million hectares) of the country’s total land area of 30 million hectares was covered with forests. This went down to 70% (20.9 million hectares) in 1863, then to 64% (18.9 million hectares) in 1920, and 36.3% (10.9 million hectares) in 1970.

“The Philippines islets were

HENRYLITO D. TACIO THINK ON THESE!

Our Forests Are Dying

once almost totally covered by tropical forest, leading us proudly to proclaim to the whole world that while our country may not have much financial resources, we are a rich nation because of our abundant natural resources,” stressed Imee Marcos who was then Ilocos Norte when she said those words.

Quoting a report released by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), Marcos said, “Now, we’re down to 3.0% forest cover.”

Where have all our forests gone?

Logging – legal or otherwise – are mowing down the country’s remaining forests. The Rev. Peter Walpole, a Jesuit priest who heads an environmental group, said the Philippines “trusted” logging companies to cut down trees and manage the forests. “But they did a very bad job,” he decried.

In 1989, the government imposed a lumber export ban in an effort to save the country’s forests from uncontrollable illegal logging. The following year, the ban was quietly lifted, but was reinstated after loud criticism.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the lead agency responsible for the country’s natural resources and ecosystems, is “vir- tually powerless against logging” because the practice, although unnoticed, is still going on.

Other culprits of deforestation include swidden agriculture (locally known as kaingin farming), mining operations, geothermal explorations, dam constructions and operation, forest fires, and land development projects (such as construction of subdivision, industrial estates, and commercial sites and road widening).

Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes have also devastated some forests. The country’s surging population has also contributed to the problem. At least a fourth of the total population lives in the upland areas, where most trees are located.

As a consequence of the continuous removal of cover, particularly those found in upland areas, our country now reels from different environmental problems. “Most of these were not seen in such intensity and magnitude before our time,” deplored Jethro P. Adang, the director of the Bansalan-based Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC). “The signs cry out for immediate, nationwide attention.”

Soil erosion is one of the most translucent problems. “(It) is now an extremely serious problem in the country,” Adang said. “It does