Desecration of the mystic mountain
By YASMIN LEE ARPON and VANESSA BAGO
abs-cbnNEWS.com
September 15, 2002

Mount Banahaw, a 2,177-meter mountain that traverses the provinces of Quezon and Laguna 170 km southeast of Manila, cuts a blue-green silhouette even on a cloudy afternoon.

The hazy shadow of the dormant volcano, which settles on nearby communities every morning hints of mysticism and magic. In fact, at least 48 puestos or sacred grounds on the so-called sacred mountain attract pilgrims and tourists almost every day of the year.

Jun Lontok, a resident of a nearby community, said Mount Banahaw is a "church" for him and the other people who believe in the mountain's holiness. Lontok is a grandson of Agripino Lontok, one of Banahaw's first known hermits and considered a mystic by many of his followers.

"We believe that Mount Banahaw is a sacred mountain. We consider all the caves, falls, hills and forests of Banahaw as our church," Lontok said.

Mount Banahaw, a dormant volcano with six mountain peaks, last erupted in 1721. Through the years its ecosystem developed because of its fertile volcanic soil, multiple springs, streams and waterfalls.

Lontok, however, said the mountain is not a source of living, although it has natural wealth, but a source of inspiration. He said he does not want to look at Banahaw in a "utilitarian way" because people would just destroy it.

"Ang paniniwala namin ay holistic, kaagapay ang bundok sa aming pangangailangang espiritwal (Our belief is holistic, the mountain is essential to our spiritual needs)," Lontok said. "We don't want to treat the mountain as a provider. We take care of it because it is a legacy of our ancestors," he added.

"We were born here and we grew up here," Lontok said.

The mountain's supposed healing powers, however, also became its weakness.

Its sacred grounds are desecrated every year, especially during the Holy Week when about half a million pilgrims and tourists climb the mountain to visit the village of Kinabuhayan, where several puesto,s such as the Bakas ni Kristo (Christ's footprint) and Santo Calvario (Calvary) are located.

Another major puesto is the Kuweba ng Dios Ama (Cave of God the Father). It is a huge cave that looks like a cathedral and serves as the main worship area of major religious sects in Banahaw.

Pilgrims leave their garbage, cut down trees and collect herbs, while residents set up stalls to sell food, candles and souvenirs.

"Our biggest problem comes during the Holy Week," said Jose Elmer Bascos, regional Community Environment and Natural Resources Officer. Aside from leaving their garbage, people also collect "amulets," Bascos said. "They strip the bark of trees," he said.

"They couldn't be controlled when they are in the area," he said.

The religious sect Suprema de la Iglesia Ciudad Mistica de Dios (Mistica) even built a concrete multi-purpose hall with toilets at about 1,000 meters above sea level.

Bascos said while most religious groups and cults try to preserve the mountain, Mistica is destroying it. "Their practices are not really destructive, but the structure changed the aesthetics of the mountain," Bascos said.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources ordered the demolition of the structure. Realizing, however, that it has no capacity to bring the concrete materials down, DENR decided to take over the building and use it as the office of the Protected Area Superintendent.

Bantay Banahaw

In an attempt to protect the mountain from indifferent pilgrims and sects, the local government of the town of Dolores organized the Bantay Banahaw (Protect Banahaw) project last March. The project tapped mountaineers and nongovernment groups to help.

Jay Lim, a member of the nongovernment Tanggol Kalikasan (Defense of Nature), said most people who climb Banahaw are not really pilgrims but picknickers.

To finance the project, Dolores town officials imposed a P5 conservation fee to all visitors. Those who bring their cars pay P20 for parking, while those who stay for three days at campsites pay between P50 and P100.

Lim, however, said a lot of people resist paying. Some escape the attention of volunteers who could not keep up with the crowd. "They said: 'The mountain is not yours,'" Lim said.

Dolores Mayor Rolando San Jose said the government collected P214,000 from about half a million visitors this year. The figure is way below the P2.5 million target.

Meanwhile, volunteers collected eight truckloads of garbage from the mountain after Easter Sunday. "The 700 volunteers were not enough. What we need is regulation and discipline," Lim said.

Not an easy task
Educating the people, however, is not an easy task.

Farmer Edgar Alcala sits on the porch of his house at the foot of Mount Banahaw.

"Malayo sa sikmura ang usaping pangkapaligiran. Kailangan ang simpleng pagpapaliwanag (The environment is not a gut issue. That's why we need to put it in simple terms)," Alcala said.

Alcala is part of Binhi ng Buhay ng mga Magsasaka (Seed of Life of Farmers) in the village of Bugon near Mount Banahaw. At the end of each day's work, he joins other farmers at a nearby village store for a drink.

Alcala looks at the drinking session as an opportunity to convince other farmers of their role to protect Banahaw. "I have to explain to them environmental issues through practical terms," he said.

Dennis Valencia, a leader of a farmers group in Bugon, had to make house-to-house rounds to encourage farmers to attend meetings. "You will have to walk from morning until night. You will really lose weight," Valencia said in jest.

Alcala and Valencia said their opposition to the building of South Luzon Tollway Extension Project in 1998 is an example how the community fought threats to Mount Banahaw. The multimillion project of former president Fidel Ramos aimed to extend the expressway from Alabang in Muntinlupa to Quezon Province.

Carmen Alcala, wife of Edgar, said the project would have destroyed four ecosystems and seven lakes. Carmen said: "The people here are not against development, but it depends on the model. In the first place, who would benefit from any form of development but the people in Banahaw?"

She said what the community wants is long-term sustainable development. "Projects like [the highway] may provide jobs for the people, but it is just short-term," she said, adding that if the government wants to improve the lives of people, it should support the local products.

Alcala said he received death threats due to his crusade to protect Banahaw. He, however, dismissed it as part of the risks. "If we talk about protecting the environment, we could expect threats," he said.

Other challenges
Due to the lobbying of residents, the Environmental Management Bureau early this year issued a notice of violations against Globe Telecoms for building a cellsite tower in the relay station of the Southern Luzon Command in Mount Banahaw.

Bascos said the tower was built with the support of the military in the area. The construction, however, had no Environmental Clearance Certificate from the environment department. The telecommunications firm was ordered to pay a penalty for the violation.

Protecting Mount Banahaw is a tough task because of the limited resources and the vast span of the mountain, Bascos said.

"We fall short in terms of monitoring," he admitted. "Mount Banahaw is a big area. We only have eight people manning the whole protected area of 11,000 hectares," he said. Bascos admitted that local Environment and Natural Resources Officers only visit the area after a violation is reported.

Aside from illegal installations, Bascos said his office also monitors timber poaching and forest fires. While slash and burn farming is no longer practiced in the area, isolated cases cause forest fires.

He admitted that the environment department is more reactive than preemptive in doing its job.

Intact forest
Despite the problems, Banahaw is still one of the country's most preserved mountains, Bascos said.

"Compared with other places, there is minimal clearing in Banahaw, maybe because people believe it is sacred," he said, adding that Mount Banahaw is still one of the most intact forests in Luzon.

Dr. Cecilia Gascon of the Southern Luzon Polytechnic College (SLPC) identified 79 families of plants in Banahaw, which are represented by 314 species distributed in different growth forms like trees, palms, vines, shrubs, grasses, herbaceous ornamentals and ferns.

SLPC leased several hectares of Banahaw for research purposes and rehabilitation through reforestation.

An SLPC study identified at least 63 mammals, 246 birds, 33 reptiles and 43 amphibian species in the mountain.

Gascon said rare birds species like the Bleeding Heart Pigeon or Punay are still found in the mountain. Migratory birds from Japan and Siberia take refuge in the forests of Banahaw during winter.

Among the endemic species that benefit from Banahaw are the common dawn fruit bat, the Philippine long-tailed macaque and the Philippine wild pig.

"We want Banahaw to be preserved as it is 10, 20 years ago, so we limit activities in the mountain," Bascos said.

Mount Banahaw and the neighboring Mount San Cristobal were declared a national park in 1941.

Called the Mount Banahaw-San Cristobal National Park, the mountains' natural environs are supposedly protected from any form of exploitation by the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) law.

Vicenta Añonuevo, regional Protected Areas and Wildlife Division chief, however, said Banahaw's classification as a national park is not enough to fully protect it. She said Mount Banahaw must be declared a protected landscape.

Añonuevo said declaring Mounts Banahaw and San Cristobal a protected landscape will create laws and measure that would address the specific problems of the mountains, generate funds for preservation projects.

"Our only hope is the passage of the bill. If the bill is approved, we will have enough funds. The implementing officers will be more proactive in protecting Banahaw. There will be enough personnel to protect the area," she said.

With inadequate funds, DENR needs help from various groups to protect Banahaw, Añonuevo said. "We're open to assistance and rehabilitation. Nongovernment groups can adopt areas for rehabilitation," she said.

Lawyer Asis Perez of Tanggol Kalikasan, however, said there is little money for environmental protection and there is little market for it. "The challenge is how do we make [the campaign] palatable to the people."

"Our concept is to make it mainstream, to look at environmental issues from the perspective of the grassroots. We are not just talking here about the good life, but the right to live," Perez said.

Bukidnon Rep. J.R. Nereus Acosta, an environmentalist, said Banahaw could be a model of how a community struggles to preserve its environment. "Even before this entire debate on sustainable development, even before this became fashionable, a lot of communities there understood the situation," Acosta said.

"They understood that when we talk about sustainable development, it means we never take from nature what we can never replenish, that we don't subtract from the future generation's capacity to take care of their needs," he said.

Acosta said it is an "uphill struggle," adding that the issue is becoming more and more pressing now and "we don't have the luxury of time."

"We have to dramatize the urgency," Acosta said.