Ravanera: An urgent call to save cagayan de oro

A MONTH or so ago on a helicopter ride over the banks of Iponon River across Barangay Tumpagon and neighboring upland barangays of Cagayan de Oro, I saw the ongoing massive hydraulic mining operations. These illegal mining activities have continued without let-up for so many years, leaving indelible marks of seriously scarred mountains.

From 3,000 feet above, the open “wounds” of hills were so glaring, bombarded by strong pressures of water generated by high-powered generators coming from the river itself. Because of these *water bombardments,* patches of earth from the mountains are literally transferred to the river. The silts make the river chocolate-like.

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Today, Iponan River is almost erased from the face of the earth and, at its mouth in Macajalar Bay, another island is being formed. You can just imagine the heavy damage done to the delicate marine ecosystems by the billions and billions of tons of top soil carried by the river to the sea.

Three weeks ago, I saw another set of pictures taken from the same helicopter showing pile of logs cut from the remaining forests of Cagayan de Oro, Bukidnon and the watersheds of Lake Lanao. Again, I can only surmise that these were illegally cut. It is my contention that these were all illegal because of three existing forestry laws. These are: 1) The prohibition to cut trees in slopes that are of 50% gradient; 2) Prohibition to cut in areas which are 1000 meters above sea level; and, 3) Prohibition to cut dipterocarp species, known as hardwoods, such as, red lawaan, narra, almacega, mahogany, etc. So even in the absence of a total log ban, there should be no logging anymore because what is left of our dipterocarp forest belongs, in one way or another, in the above-mentioned prohibition categories.

Statistics shows that from 17 million hectares of dipterocarp forest a century ago, we barely have half a million hectares left. Logging industry has raked some 48 billion dollars from 1970 to 1985, according to an ADB Study. The forest ecosystem has been massively exploited that we have lost our ecological integrity. Our country has become vulnerable to all kinds of ecological disasters. Today, the sins of a few loggers are now visited upon our people.

It is my contention that the ingredients of an Ormoc-like disaster are now present in Cagayan de Oro in the forms of silted rivers and denuded mountains. We may recall that in 1991, one night of flooding had fatally drowned some 8,000 people in Ormoc Leyte, the worst ecological disaster in Philippine history caused by unabated logging operations whose powerful cabal of vested interest has continued to waggle its ugly powerful influence all these years.

Satellite map shows that in 1980, Cagayan de Oro had still 37,000 hectares of forests. In fact, in Bayanga, one of the nearest upland barangays we have, the farmers had this problem then of monkey eating their corn in their farms because the land was still forestal.

Because of intensive logging, the forest in Cagayan de Oro had gone down to 21,000 hectares in 1991 and today, we barely have 2,000 hectares as illegal logging continues without let-up. There are still logging trucks carrying illegally-cut logs passing through the thoroughfares of Cagayan de Oro at dawn as witnessed by our farmers in Tignapoloan.

What I cannot understand is why all these years, we have allowed this massive exploitation of our natural resources. If indeed we follow the rule of law and not of men, why can’t we stop all of these illegal activities which have plundered our resource base, our means to life?

As head of Task Force Macajalar, I had a colleague who was dying then of bone cancer who despite his terminal illness, wanted to join us in barricading logging trucks. In fact, that time, he was confined in the hospital. He was not allowed by his doctor to leave the hospital because he was near his time. He told the doctor to release him stating that he knew he was dying. He said that how will he answer God if He asks him what did he do to protect his creation as he believed that protecting God’s vanishing creation is the highest form of worship.

Five days later, he would die. I can only pray that such a nurturing spirit should be given a twenty-one gun salute in heaven by the angels.

He was the late Nong Tonyo Salcedo, a fisherfolk leader from Agusan.

Let us now work together to save Cagayan de Oro by forging our oneness to have the will, like Nong Tonyo, to gallantly stand for God’s vanishing creation which is only ours to protect and nurture for the coming generations. (orravanera@yahoo.com)