AN official in Itogon, Benguet, said the National Integrated Protected Areas System (Nipas) is doing the town more harm than good.
Councilor Arnel Bahingawan is leading a campaign to remove Itogon from the system.
Bahingawan has presented a resolution in the town council that is backed by five villages whose officials also oppose Nipas.
“The Nipas is disadvantageous to the town,” Bahingawan said.
The Nipas law, enacted in 2992, covers areas that are habitats of rare and endangered species of plants and animals representative of bio geographic zones and related ecosystems.
Bahingawan said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources officials visited the different barangays in the municipality to explain why the lower Agno watershed forest reservation should be designated as a protected area.
But the Barangays of Tinongdan, Loacan, Gumatnang, Ampucao and Dalupirip which are covered by the watershed have sided with Bahingawan, saying the Nipas encroaches on their property rights.
Officials in Barangay Ampucao said the system denies indigenous people from owning ancestral lands.
Bahingawan said the Ampucao is a community that depends mainly on mining.
“How could you protect the environment when there is mining?” he said.