NEWS: Forest fire hits Mount Banahaw

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photo caption: FIRE AND BRIMSTONE – Grass fire on a portion of the ‘sacred’ Mount Banahaw southeast of Manila has forced the military to scramble and send at least three of its helicopters to help put outthe blaze which has thus far engulfed more than 50 hectares of the forest, popular among religious pilgrims and mountaineers. (Danny Estacio).


Forest fire hits Mount Banahaw
March 21, 2014

A forest fire, still of unknown cause, was raging yesterday atop a Philippine mountain, threatening endangered plants and animals in an area also considered by some local sects as a holy place, officials said.

The government’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said about a 10-hectare patch of forest near the summit had been destroyed as of early yesterday.
Grass fire , Mt. Banahaw, Manila Bulletin, sacred’ Mount Banahaw

FIRE AND BRIMSTONE – Grass fire on a portion of the ‘sacred’ Mount Banahaw southeast of Manila has forced the military to scramble and send at least three of its helicopters to help put outthe blaze which has thus far engulfed more than 50 hectares of the forest, popular among religious pilgrims and mountaineers. (Danny Estacio).

In an advisory, it also warned the fire near the summit of Mount Banahaw, particularly on the side of Dolores town in Quezon, was still spreading, a site popular among mountaineers and pilgrims of different religious sects, particularly during the Lenten season.

Firefighters have still not reached the blaze, 18 hours after it was first observed, said municipal disaster official Elmer Bustamante.

“The area is too steep,” he told AFP by telephone from the town of Sariaya at the base of the mountain, about 95 kms southeast of Manila.

In Dolores town, a team of mountaineers and rescuers from the disaster risk reduction and management council was dispatched here yesterday to locate some 20 people believed to responsible for the what officials called “grass fire’ near the crater of the Durungawan portion of Mt. Banahaw.

Initial reports estimated 50 hectares had been burnt in Durungawan at the tri-boundaries of Lucban, Tayabas, and Candelaria.

The rescuers are from the disaster personnel of Sariaya, Tiaong, Dolores, and Quezon.

Triggered By Pilgrims?

Initial reports of the Calabarzon Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (RDRRMC) said the forest fire that started at the Mount Banahaw peak on the side of Sariaya town at about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, may have been caused by pilgrims who slipped into the restricted site and used candles in their activities.

“But this (report that candles caused the blaze) is still being validated by our team there,” said Vicente Tomazar, director of the Office of Civil Defense-Calabarzon.

Forester Magtanggol Barrion, a lone forest guard, responsible for guarding the protected area of Mt. Banahaw, said he noticed the fire at about 6:00 p.m on Wednesaday but he believed it started earlier.

He reported the incident to his superior DENR-Calabarzon regional director Reynulfo Juan.

The DENR, and the Provincial Government Environment and Natural Resources Office conducted an aerial survey through an Air Force helicopter to assess the extent of damage.

The Philippine Air Force originally planned to deploy three choppers with Bambi Buckets, also known as helicopter buckets, used in aerial firefighting.

Bambi Bucket

BFP Officer-in-Charge Chief Supt. Carlito Romero bared this plan of “indirect firefighting,” wherein the water would target not the ongoing fire, but its surroundings.

“When dropped in a water source like a lake or a river, the Bambi Bucket would collect water and the helicopter would be able to carry it to the mountain top,” he said.

Romero explained they cannot pour water directly where fire is raging because it would be “useless,” since the water will only evaporate due to the extreme heat.

The moisture content that would be absorbed by trees and other plants would hopefully quell the fire, he said.

However, the winds were just too strong yesterday for the Bambi Buckets to be used productively.

Quezon Provincial Fire Marshal Col. Carlito Encinas said the water would only have been scattered, so the choppers deployed by the Air Force were used instead for aerial survey.

In Manila, the environment department’s Forest Management Bureau deployed a team of experts to assess conditions in portions of Mt. Banahaw ravaged by the fire.

“They’ll evaluate the situation there and make the corresponding recommendations,” FMB Director Ricardo Calderon said.

Closed To Public

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources noted that in 2004, the Protected Area Management Board in the area issued a resolution, declaring specific areas in the mountain as closed to the public “starting from the different ‘puestos’ (sacred places) of Barangay Kinabuhayan to Kristalino Falls up to Dungaw to Tatlong Tangke then back to Kinabuhayan in the Dolores side, and from Barangay Bugon Puesto of Pagbuga up to Dulong Ilaya in Barangay Concepcion-Pinagbakuran and Concepcion-Banahaw in the Sariaya side, both in Quezon province.”

In 2012, the DENR said the PAMB decided to extend the moratorium for another three years or until 2015 to give the mountain sufficient time to fully recover from years of degradation.

Calderon said provincial and community environment and natural resources officers concerned are monitoring the fire.

“They’re trained in fire prevention and control,” he assured.

Several small sects that worship at caves and springs on Banahaw’s lower slopes continue to have access there, though officials said there have been no reports of anyone being trapped in the fire.

Wildlife officials of the environment department told said Banahaw’s forests, including a 10,900-hectare protected zone, are home to scores of animal species found only in this Southeast Asian archipelago republic, including a species of cloud rat discovered only in 2004.

Ivan Herzano, project officer of the non-government group Foundation for the Philippine Environment, told Agence France-Presse that despite access restrictions, forest rangers lacked the capability to track all persons who may be illegally entering the protected area.

Hunters illegally looking for game could have lit dry litter on the forest floor by carelessly discarding cigarette butts, he added. (Reports from Czarina Nicole Ong, Aaron Recuenco, Danny Estacio, AFP, and PNA)

Source: www.mb.com.ph/forest-fire-hits-mount-banahaw/

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Forest fire damages mystic Mt. Banahaw
Delfin T. Mallari Jr. / Inquirer Southern Luzon
March 21, 2014

LUCENA CITY—A forest fire has damaged a large area near the adjoining peaks of Mt. Banahaw and Mt. San Cristobal and may have destroyed endangered plants and animals in a place some local sects consider holy, officials said on Thursday.

The fire on the western slope of the volcanic crater facing Sariaya town in Quezon province was believed to have been started by backpackers who ignored a ban on trekking on the 2,158-meter-high Mt. Banahaw, which is closed for preservation.

Arnulfo Juan, director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon), told a morning news conference here that at least 50 hectares of cogon were burning atop Mt. Banahaw and 100-140 ha of grassland within a reforestation area on the 1,380-m Mt. San Cristobal were ablaze.

Fire Officer 2 Marx Pranada, Bureau of Fire Protection chief in Quezon, said local fire fighters had no capability to fight a forest fire of that magnitude.

By midday, however, other DENR officials in the region said the fire appeared to have died out on its own, apparently stopped by the wet forest.

Ernesto Amores, head of the Sariaya Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said the fire was first spotted around 6 p.m. on Wednesday, with the observation of smoke from Maharlika Highway.

Fire fighters still had not reached the blaze some 18 hours after it was first observed, said Elmer Bustamante, another official of the Sariaya disaster council.

But television aerial pictures showed the area covered with white smoke late Thursday afternoon, the fire having burned out without fire fighters getting there.

Started by intruders

“The fire was definitely caused by man,” said Salud Pangan, DENR park superintendent for Mt. Banahaw and Mt. San Cristobal.

Pangan said intruders sneaked into the restricted area under cover of darkness.

Banahaw and San Cristobal have a combined land area of about 10,000 ha, but there are only three forest rangers on the western slope in Quezon, she said.

“Ideally, the huge area should have 12 forest rangers,” she added.

Amores said the fire was the first on the western slope of Banahaw.

Protected species

Wildlife officials of the DENR said Banahaw’s forest, including the protected zone, was home to scores of animal species found only in the Philippines, including a species of cloud rat discovered only in 2004.

Officials said they still had to receive a report of the extent of the damage to the mountain caused by the forest fire.

Ivan Herzano, a project officer of the private group Foundation for the Philippine Environment, said that despite access restrictions, forest rangers lacked the capability to track people who may be illegally entering the protected area.

Reforestation project

Hunters illegally looking for game could have lit dry litter on the forest floor by carelessly discarding cigarette butts, Herzano added.

Herzano’s group has recently completed a 60-ha reforestation project on the mountain, which has protected zones that are off limits to human habitation, as well as “multiple-use zones” on its lower slopes reserved for locals.

On Tuesday, grass fire struck the slope of San Cristobal on the side of San Pablo City, destroying 10 ha of cogon and parts of a reforestation project.

Pangan said the fire was started by “reckless” honey bee collectors.

The Protected Area Management Board, a multisectoral body tasked with the enforcement of Republic Act No. 9847, which designates Mt. Banahaw and Mt. San Cristobal protected areas, has closed Banahaw to trekkers up to February 2016 to protect the gains from reforestation that has been going on since 2004.

Camping, praying and other religious activities are allowed only in designated areas near the foot of the mountain.—With a report from AFP

Source: newsinfo.inquirer.net/587672/forest-fire-damages-mystic-mt-banahaw

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AFP sends choppers to help contain Mt. Banahaw wildfire
Bong Lozada / INQUIRER.net
March 20, 2014

MANILA, Philippines – As the fire in Mount Banahaw rages, the Armed Forces of the Philippines has sent its helicopters to help extinguish the wildfire.

The AFP spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Zagala, said the military has already sent three helicopters to conduct Bambi Bucket operations, aerial inspection and damage assessment on the forest fire that swept through the mountain Thursday.

Zagala said that one Huey II helicopter and two UH-1 Huey helicopters, under the use of the 2nd Infantry Division of the Philippine Army, have already been deployed to Sariaya Quezon to support the aerial firefighting operations.

According to Vicente Tobazar, Office for Civil Defense Director for Calabarzon, the fire had hit 50 hectares of land atop Mt. Banahaw. He said ground personnel have managed to climb the mountain to inspect the causes.

He said that there was no need for the citizens to evacuate the area and no citizens are within the five kilometer radius from the fire.

Source: newsinfo.inquirer.net/587568/afp-sends-choppers-to-help-contain-mt-banahaw-wildfire

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DENR: Mt. Banahaw remains off-limits to climbers
Delfin T. Mallari Jr./Inquirer Southern Luzon
March 18, 2014



LUCENA CITY—The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Quezon province on Monday said Mount Banahaw remains off limits to mountaineers, nature trippers and pilgrims who want to scale it this Holy Week.

DENR-Quezon chief Alfredo Palencia issued this warning after Salud Pangan, DENR park superintendent for Banahaw and the neighboring Mount San Cristobal, discovered Monday that a syndicate was again luring mountaineers and nature trippers by promising them access to the mystical mountain for a fee.

“The mountains are off-limits until 2016,” Palencia said.

Pangan, in a separate interview, said she was alarmed by a message on the Facebook page of one of Banahaw’s supposed advocate groups.

A message invited mountaineers to join a two-day tree-planting activity on April 7 and 8 in Banahaw.

The message claimed that the activity was allowed by the DENR. The supposed tree-planting activity also included trekking and camping in several mountain spots declared close to the public by the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB).

“No permit was given by the PAMB for that tree-planting activity,” Pangan said.

The PAMB is a multisectoral body tasked by the government to monitor protected areas.

Pangan said the suspect also initiated a similar tree-planting activity last year in Laguna province.

“His group had really planted trees but we later learned that it was used as a cover [for] the main agenda—to climb and enter the still off-limit spots,” she said.

Last January and February, Pangan said the suspect tried to again secure permits from her office, supposedly for the monitoring and inspection of the planted trees, but she turned down the application.

Pangan declined to identify the suspect so as not to preempt a course of action by the DENR.

The activities of Banahaw con groups was first discovered in 2012 on the Facebook pages of some pseudo-mountaineering groups, she said. Pangan also found out that her signature had been forged by the con groups and was affixed to the fake DENR documents, which they showed to their victims.

The PAMB officially declared Banahaw’s peaks closed to trekkers until February 2016 to protect gains from its long closure since 2004.

Camping, praying and other religious activities are allowed only in designated areas near the foot of the mountain.

Pangan said Banahaw’s entry points in Dolores and Sariaya towns remain closed. However, trekkers can hike to nonrestricted sections of the mountain via the trails in Tayabas and Lucban towns in Quezon, and in Liliw, Majayjay and Nagcarlan towns in Laguna.

“But they have to secure the necessary permits from the towns’ respective environment officials,” she stressed.

She said the permits also stipulated that only 20 to 30 mountaineers would be allowed to conduct the hike in
a single day in observance of the mountain’s carrying capacity.

Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net/586542/denr-mt-banahaw-remains-off-limits-to-climbers#ixzz2wYMYFTNJ


Source: newsinfo.inquirer.net/586542/denr-mt-banahaw-remains-off-limits-to-climbers#ixzz2wYMReL2T

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Banahaw fire out but pilgrims still missing
Ron B. Lopez
March 21, 2014

The forest fire in Mt. Banahaw in Sariaya, Quezon province was extinguished Friday, but authorities said they are still searching for the missing pilgrims who are likely to have caused the fire that lasted for more than a day.

At least six members of a religious group, including a 72-year old-man who illegally trekked up the mountain, have been the subject of new rescue operations, said Ernesto Amores Jr., head of the Sariaya Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office.

Amores, in a phone interview with Manila Bulletin Online, said the authorities have so far rescued six members of the religious group, and have organized two teams to find the other missing pilgrims.

He said the forest fire, which was first detected Wednesday night and which has burned 50 hectares of the mountain, went out on its own.

Amores said the fire was manmade, and said it was highly likely that the group of pilgrms had started it.

According to a TV report, the forest fire is likely caused by a candle light that was left out in the forest. The mountain has been a place for religious rituals until it was closed to public in 2004.

Source: www.mb.com.ph/banahaw-fire-out-but-pilgrims-still-missing/

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6 more pilgrims charged for Banahaw bushfire
Michelle Zoleta / The Philippine Star
March 23, 2014

SARIAYA, Quezon, Philippines – Six more pilgrims were charged for starting the bushfire that razed some 50 hectares of forestland in Mt. Banahaw last Thursday.

Officials said the six pilgrims were turned over by rescue teams to the police on suspicions they started the fire, along with several other pilgrims.

The Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (MDRRMC) said the six were on their way down from the mountain in Barangay Concepcion Pinagbakuran when they were spotted by rescue teams.

The six were identified as Criste Ababa Bulante, 45, of Las Piñas City; Merencia Eugencio Santiago, 44, of Nueva Ecija; Jinky Mae Dumanan Dulay, 21, of Taguig City; Francisco Saculsan Alpapara, 73, of Pasay City; Richard Abanilla Espita, 43, and Tristan Joe Cruz Alpapara, 28, both from Las Piñas.

They were charged with violation of Republic Act 9847, or the law declaring Mt. Banahaw and the nearby Mt. Cristobal in Laguna as protected landscape.

The six were members of the Hiwaga ng Bundok Banahaw Inc., a group of devotees trekking to the mountain annually during summer.
Nation ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1

They were earlier reported missing as five from their group were charged but later released after paying the penalty, on suspicions of starting the fire in the mountain.

The revered mountain spans the boundaries of Laguna and Quezon, attracting thousands of devotees every year, especially in the run-up to Holy Week. The devotees perform rituals to supposedly recharge their spirituality.

They admitted going up the mountain to observe their panata (pledge).

Source: www.philstar.com/nation/2014/03/23/1303996/6-more-pilgrims-charged-banahaw-bushfire

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DENR execs seek total ban on human presence in Mt. Banahaw to revive forest
23 Mar 2014
Jonathan L. Mayuga

THE damaged portion of the forest around the peak of Mount Banahaw in Quezon Province will be back to its natural, healthy state in less than a year with the help of the mountain’s biological agents, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said on Sunday.

Some 50 hectares of forests were destroyed by the fire around the peak of Mount Banahaw within the mountain’s San Cristobal, the DENR reported last week.

Fortunately, the fire died naturally, preventing further damage, environment officials said.

Director Ricardo Calderon of the Forest Management Bureau and Director Theresa Mundita Lim of the Biodiversity Management Bureau said the damaged portion of the forest in Mount Banahaw will regenerate on its own without human intervention.

“It will take less than a year. Isang ulanan lang yan, unti unting babalik yan [It will only take one rainfall and the forest cover will slowly return],” Calderon said.

He said the damage caused by the fire was minimal, considering that there are not much trees around the peak of the mountain.

“There is no need for human intervention to rehabilitate the damaged portion of Mount Banahaw. Let nature heal itself,” he said, adding that there is no need to spend public funds.

Usually, it costs the government P12,000 to P15,000 to reforest a hectare.

But such apply only on reforested areas, according to Calderon.

Natural forests, he said, easily regenerate.

The natural regeneration of a forest happens faster with the help of biological agents, Lim said.

“Rodents, birds and bats are natural tree-planters. The bees and butterfly are natural pollinators. Just let them do their job.”

Bees and butterflies, on the other hand, pollinate plants that allow it to grow fruits that the rodents, birds and bats in turn eat, expelling the seeds that grow in the forests, she further explained.

However, Lim underscored the need to prevent human activities in that portion to allow the regeneration of the forest without disturbance.

Lim said it is also important to protect surrounding areas outside the damaged portion where life-support system exists and can help the natural regeneration of Mount Banahaw’s damaged forest areas.

Calderon and Lim support Environment Secretary Ramon JP Paje’s proposal to permanently ban human activities in Mount Banahaw and San Cristobal to protect the forests from destructive human activities.

Source: businessmirror.com.ph/index.php/en/business/agri-commodities/29427-denr-execs-seek-total-ban-on-human-presence-in-mt-banahaw-to-revive-forest