Pilgrims, Trekkers Banned from Mounts Banahaw, San Cristobal

By Ayi Muallam
PinoyPress

This coming Holy Week, Mount Banahaw and Mount San Cristobal in Southern Tagalog will remain closed to pilgrims and trekkers “to allow the two mountains to “heal” themselves from decades of wanton environmental destruction.”

This was revealed by Senator Pia Cayetano on Thursday following the approval on Monday of the bicameral conference committee report reconciling the Senate and House versions of the bills seeking the protection of the two mountains. There is an existing ban on pilgrimage to the two mountains.

“While it is widely regarded as a sacred place, Mounts Banahaw and San Cristobal have not been accorded due respect and have not been spared from human exploitation,” Cayetano said.

Cayetano, principal author of Senate Bill No. 2392 or “An Act Declaring the Mountains of Banahaw and San Cristobal as a Protected Landscape”, said that the enactment of the bill “will institutionalize current mechanisms to regulate human activities and arrest the destruction of the two mountains.”

Its counterpart measure in the Lower House, under HB No.4299, is principally authored by Representative Proceso Alcala (Second District, Quezon Province). Cayetano expects the bill to be signed into law by the President before the Lenten break.

“It is unfortunate that some people who troop there to meditate, especially during the Lenten Season, haven’t been mindful of their responsibility to protect the environment,” Cayetano said.

According to Cayetano, the discovery of high concentrations of coliform bacteria in the mountain’s waters and a reported estimate of 90 tons of garbage that were being collected annually, which had been traced to tourists and trekkers, prompted the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) to enforce a public ban on March 2004.

Under Resolution No. 2004-0001, PAMB ordered the mountains closed for five years and fenced off public entry points.

Before the five-year ban elapsed this year, the PAMB, in a meeting in February, decided to extend the ban for another three years or until 2012.

“I hope that the public would agree that the ban should stay. It’s only right that we allow the holy mountains to heal after decades of wanton destruction. Since the ban’s enforcement, there have been evident signs of restoration of its flora and fauna. The rafflesia, the biggest flower in the world, started to reappear there. Last year, it was also reported that water has started flowing again to its once dried-out falls, namely, Kristalino, Suplina and Salaming-Bubog,” Cayetano said. (pinoypress.net)