After #UlyssesPH, Masungi Georeserve asks gov’t for help to protect Marikina watershed

On the heels of the devastation brought by Typhoon Ulysses, the conservation team in Baras, Rizal calls on the government for help in protecting a portion of the Upper Marikina watershed.

According to the Masungi Georeserve team on Nov. 15, armed guards of the private corporation Rublou Inc. and its renewable energy subsidiary Green Atom continue to be present inside the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape. This, despite the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) issuing a show cause order to the company in October and dismantling the fences and structures that its armed personnel built in the area.

Instead of ceasing operations, the Masungi Georeserve team said that the company’s guards have “more than doubled” and reportedly continue to patrol at least 500 hectares of the watershed.

Previously, the private company stated that it is only helping the Dumagat-Remontados tribe who claims ownership over the area that they had fenced off. But the Masungi team reported that in a statement released on Oct. 30 and signed by 24 elders, chieftains and officers of the tribe, the Dumagat-Remontados group refuted involvement in the company’s deployment of armed guards. They also denied hiring as legal counsel the lawyer who signed an “official statement from the tribe” released by the company.

The Masungi team also said that they had met with the tribe and promised to work with them for the conservation of the watershed’s critical sections with respect to their rights over the area. According to the team, approximately 500 hectares of the Masungi project site is part of the tribe’s ongoing ancestral domain title application.

With the disastrous flooding last week because of typhoon Ulysses, the Masungi Georeserve team calls on President Duterte and the DENR to help protect the watershed’s integrity by ordering the company to vacate the protected area which also houses a patch of Benguet pine trees grown by the government from the 1970s.

The team is also asking the National Bureau of Investigation and the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission to help “address the wholesale buying and selling of forest land and land scams in the protected area.” In a previous interview, DENR’s undersecretary said that some groups have recently “become bold in claiming land ownership due to monitoring limitations of the government.” 

“Protecting our people starts with protecting the integrity of our forests and ecosystem which shield us from floods, landslides and pandemics. The presence of armed guards and arbitrary occupation of forest land pose a threat to the safety of park rangers and volunteers, and disrupt urgent restoration work,” stated the Masungi Georeserve team.

“In the past months and through the COVID-19 pandemic, rising cases of illegal logging, charcoal-making and illegal occupation have been monitored in reforestation areas, necessitating increased monitoring and protection efforts in high-risk zones,” the team added.

Occupying 26,000 hectares in Rizal, the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape is vital in regulating water flow towards the National Capital Region. Protected from settlement, entry, sale and disposition since 1904, it was then declared a protected area under Proclamation No. 296 issued in 2001.

Despite this, the watershed’s natural ability to store stormwater has been affected by the continued destruction of its forest. “In 2009, Ondoy unleashed its fury. Due in large part to a failing watershed, Ondoy caused massive loss of property and lives,” wrote the Masungi Georeserve team in a Facebook post.

As of writing, Rublou Inc. has yet to make an official response to Masungi Georeserve’s latest statement.

Header photo from Masungi Georeserve’s official Facebook page

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