Protecting Central Cebu watersheds, 2

Overall, the Central Cebu Protected Landscape (CCPL) has five organic employees, three contractuals and third party warm bodies or laborers. The works of several employees are not congruent with their job descriptions and the 29,080-hectare areas they are managing. Standard equipment to maintain and manage the CCPL, such as handheld GPS, binoculars, VHF radios, vehicles, etc are not available.

The CCPL should have an appropriate budget from Congress because it is a protected area that has a legal mandate in Republic Act 9487, otherwise known as the CCPL Act of 2007. However, there are no implementing rules and regulation (IRR) for CCPL. The IRR was supposed to be drafted within one month of the signing of RA 9487.

In 2013, a draft was sent to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Manila. According to the stamped received date, it came back with suggestions. A workshop to finalize the IRR will be held on March 27 and the result will be immediately sent to DENR Manila for final approval. There is an initial budget with the IRR of approximately P10 million but it is mostly for employees.

We hope for thoughtful, actionable and sustainable steps to arrest the damage and conserve the remaining patches of forest left in the CCPL. People residing within the protected area can then live more harmoniously with the environment and with outsiders.

We hope that the DENR CCPL will be given appropriate support to mobilize, monitor and implement activities within the CCPL as mandated by the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB).

By organizing the structural framework and providing ample warm bodies, CCPL can commit to enforcing laws and mandates without compromising the sanctity of the forest.

As the PAMB is strengthened in its planning and activity implementation, this strong slocal governance should provide for the sustainability of the protected landscape.-- William Granert, executive director, Soil and Water Conservation Foundation, Inc.

Jabidah massacre

Massacres of the Moro people continue even after Jabidah. This came out in a recent forum remembering the Jabidah massacre.

The Jabidah massacre was the mass murder of Moro soldiers who were being secretly trained as a special commando unit called Jabidah in Corregidor, Bataan. These soldiers were to part of then president Ferdinand Marcos’s Operation Merdeka, a plot to infiltrate, destabilize and take back Sabah from Malaysia. They were murdered by members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines on March 18, 1968 to cover up the leaked plan.

We call on Pres. Rodrigo Duterte to stop this all-out war. It is a menace to the lives of civilians including children who only want to live in peace. President Duterte should pull out his troops in our communities.

Peace for the Moro people and the rest of the nation is eliminating national oppression.-- Jerome Succor Aba, co-chairperson, Sandugo Moro Katutubo