DAVAO -- Fire of still unknown origin on two sides of Mt. Apo continue to rage on as of late afternoon Sunday, March 27, eating through over a hundred hectares now of forests and grasslands.
Mt. Apo National park operation superintendent Edward Ragaza said in a telephone interview that the rough estimate is that the two fires, one on the Davao side and one on the Cotabato side, could have already eaten through over a hundred hectares of forestland.
“Makita pa man dito ang apoy, so mga ganyan na kalaki, maaring mas malaki pa,” he said.
Ragaza had just attended the emergency meeting in Barangay Kapatagan, Digos City, one of the entrance and exit trails to the country’s highest peak.
Edgardo Elera, Digos City tourism officer, said that after the meeting Sunday afternoon in sitio Baras, Kapatagan in Digos City, with Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP)-Digos Fire Inspector Donald Concepcion, Digos City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council head lawyer Einstien Garry R. Taghoy, Davao del Sur PDRRMC head Harry Camoro, and volunteer groups Caregroup, Kabalikat, and Hadams dri Baras, “We have decided na magpa-conduct again another aerial survey.”
Later in the evening Sunday, Concepcion and Camoro were about to meet with the special rescue unit of the BFP-Davao at the Baras station, Elera said.
Sitio Baras is in Barangay Kapatagan, Digos City, the last station before the climb up Mt. Apo when passing through the Kapatagan trail.
The fire was first reported at 1 p.m. Black Saturday, March 26.
Ragaza said that after assessing from the Baras station, it was found out that the fire at the Davao side is just below the peak going down to Lake Venado where the campsites usually are.
As of Sunday, March 27, they still have not confirmed what caused the fire. But reports said the fire started just after the climbers have gone down.
Provincial environment and natural resources officer Ma. Mercedes Villarosa Dumagan said that all 200 trekkers who entered through Digos City have been accounted for.
“Of the 200, 150 yung nakabalik na and 50 yung nasa Baras pa, ibig sabihin nakababa na rin (150 have returned and the rest are still in Baras, but they all have gone down),” she said.
Sitio Baras is in Barangay Kapatagan where the Mt. Apo Trekkers Information Center is located.
“We have instructed all forest protection officers and especially the indigenous peoples in the area to coordinate with us,” she added.
She said they have also reached out to Hedcor for assistance on logistics.
Hedcor runs a hydro plant along Sibulan River, which emanates from Mt. Apo.
Radaza said that of the 1,000 trekkers allowed for the Holy Week, Sta. Cruz had an allotment of 300, Digos City had 200, and Bansalan had 100, all in Dvao del Sur.
On the North Cotabato trails, Makilala had an allotment of 100 trekkers, Kidapawan had 200, and Magpet had 100.
Department of Environment and Natural Resources Regional Director Joselin Marcus Fragada said that based on reports he received, all climbers were already down when the fire was reported.
Manning the fire brigade on both sides are the BFP, the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Councils (PDRRMCs), MDRRMCs, the Penros, and the barangays that host the trails.
On the Kidapawan side, they have also coordinated with Energy Development Corporation (EDC), which operates the geothermal plant on Mt. Apo and has fire-fighting equipment, while on the Davao Region side, the Hedcor has been tapped. There are also volunteers and members of the different tribal councils.
“The bigger fire is in the Cotabato side,” Dumagan said.
Businessman Philip Dizon, who has been complaining about fires on Mt. Apo done by those clearing areas for farming, said that the forest fire now raging is expected.
“The mountain is all dried, we haven’t had rain here for weeks, the situation is very ripe for a forest fire and nothing is being done to stop these practices,” he said in a separate telephone interview.
He has raised the issue several times through the years, he said, but no forest ranger is ever seen apprehending violators.
Mt. Apo, as a national park, should be off limits to such activities. First declared as a national park through Proclamation 59 by President Manuel L. Quezon on May 9, 1936, Mt. Apo got several proclamations after that confirming its status -- Proclamation 35 on May 8, 1966, and Proclamation 882 on September 24, 1996.
With the approval of Republic Act 9237, Mt. Apo was established as a protected area under the category of natural park covering 54,974 hectares and buffer zones comprising of 2,571 hectares and 6,506 hectares on the Davao and Cotabato sides.
Protection of Mt. Apo, however, has only been limited to limiting the number of trekkers allowed to go up. The mountain being on the boundary of six municipal government units has worked against it as no single entity is pushing for its thorough protection.
Mt. Apo has in fact been the first natural park in Mindanao submitted for inscription to the Unesco World Heritage Site in 2009, but it has been dropped from the tentative list in 2015 after nothing has come out of it.
Mt. Hamiguitan Mountain Range thus became the first mountain range in the Philippines to garner such distinction and level of protection in 2014.
Dizon bewailed the lax protection, stressing that all residents should recognize the value of Mt. Apo as it is the one providing the region its much-needed rain for all its agricultural lands.
“It’s what has been bringing us the afternoon rains. Now, we hardly have these rains because we have not protected Mt. Apo,” he said.
Davao City used to experience rainfall every around 4 p.m. but all these have changed starting in the 1990s and now rainfall don’t come regularly. (Sun.Star Davao)
