SPEAKING of the environment, how and why were 300 hikers allowed to climb Mt. Pulag?
Three hundred is such a big number no matter how you look at it. The number becomes bigger when you take into consideration that Mt. Pulag is such a delicate ecosystem.
The number of those visiting the peak of the second highest mountain in the country should be strictly controlled. Otherwise, an ecological disaster similar to, if not greater than, what the vegetable farms dotting its periphery have done to the peak's fragile mossy forest.
How the 300 came to the peak is not the worse of it.
What truly irritate the sane mind is that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has no set protocols and guidelines on how to handle such situations. Are our government functionaries mere functionaries? How could people overlook in controlling such events and set measures on how to mitigate the effects of a huge number climbing Mt. Pulag's peak?
If the continuing expansion of the vegetable farms around pulag is any indication, then our government men tasked to protect the precious and unique environment of Mt. Pulag really do not have a concrete plan on how to do their job.