Mount Banahaw still off limits

MANILA, Philippines – Parts of Mount Banahaw remain closed to visitors, pilgrims, trekkers, and excursionists, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said on Friday.
The DENR’s Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) issued a resolution in January 2009 wherein portions of the iconic mountain were declared off-limits for another 3 years, DENR Region 4-A Calabarzon executive director Nilo Tamoria said.
Tamoria said Mount Banahaw has not fully recovered from environmental destruction.
 “Let us give her more time to heal, We may need more than the long years of abuse, almost completely desecrating the so-revered holy mountain, to let her heal,” he said in a press statement. “There are now signs that she is recuperating.”
Regulations on human activities on the mountain in 2004 under PAMB Resolution No. 001-2004, when some parts of the mount were declared closed--Cristalino Falls, Durungawan, Tatlong Tangke to Kinabuhayan in the Dolores, Quezon-side; Barangay Bugon, Puesto ng Pagbuga, Dulong Ilaya, Concepcion-Pinagbakuran, and Concepcion-Banahaw in the Sariaya,Quezon-side.
 More portions were added through PAMB Resolution on March 23, 2006, which covered the Laguna side of Mount Banahaw--in Barangay Bukal in Nagcarlan; Barangays Ilaya Sungi and Novaliches in Liliw; and Bukal and Taytay in Majayjay.
 The PAMB then passed Resolution No. 04-2009 in January 29, 2009 to extend the regulations for 3 more years.
 “Mount Banahaw is regarded as a sacred place,” Tamoria said. “We want Mount Banahaw to maintain that status. As a sacred mountain, she should be accorded due respect. Hindi siya dapat nasasalaula. Panatilihin natin siyang may mayabong na gubat.”
Salud Pangan, a forester serving as the protected area superintendent, said the number of visitors to the mountain dropped from about half a million during Lent  in the past years to about 3,000 to 5,000 in 2009 and about 3,000 last year.
She expects fewer visitors this year.
She said the DENR’s park rangers and around 100 volunteers from local-environmentally concerned group such as Ugnayan, a federation of mountaineering groups including the Banahaw de Dolores Outdoor Club, Tayabas Mountaineers, the Lucena City-based mountaineering group Move On, Tau Gamma Phi fraternity members, will be mobilized to  man entry points to the area.
The trails that will guarded included those going to the restricted areas of Cristalino Falls, Durungawan, Tatlong Tangke to Kinabuhayan; Barangay Bugon, Puesto ng Pagbuga, Dulong Ilaya, and Concepcion Pinagbakuran.

Source: ABS-CBN