The Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX) organized a tree nurturing activity at the Masungi Georeserve in the southern part of Luzon’s Sierra Madre mountain range last May. Spearheaded by the Environment Committee of the FINEX Research and Development Foundation.
Since I was not able to join that activity, a separate visit to Masungi was facilitated by another FINEX colleague who accompanied me to the main portion of the conservation area in Baras, Rizal last month. Masungi Georeserve Foundation Inc. (MGFI) President Ben Dumaliang toured us around the vast nature preserve along with Anna Reyes of the Upper Marikina Watershed Coalition (UMWC) and MGFI Trustee Billie Dumaliang.
Masungi Georeserve is a rustic rock garden characterized by a karst landscape with extensive limestone formations tucked in the rainforests of Baras and Tanay municipalities. According to the National Museum of the Philippines, “the formation of such a landscape takes hundreds of thousands of years and gave rise to a special ecosystem called limestone forest where plants grow in the few pockets of deep soil and parched substrates.”
Situated 640 meters above sea level, Masungi’s 10-kilometer limestone spine dates back to the Paleocene Epoch some 60 million years ago. Its karst landscape is also home to more than 500 species of endemic flora and fauna that serves as a venue for local and international research.
In the late 1990s, the area was deforested and inundated by a land-grabbing epidemic as well as illegal logging and large-scale quarrying. Founded by the Dumaliangs in 1996, MGFI secured the place by the early 2000s and its rehabilitation has been underway since then.
With the success of MGFI’s conservation activities, it was tasked in 2017 by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) under then Secretary Regina Lopez to restore an additional 2,700 hectares of degraded land within the Upper Marikina Watershed, the Kaliwa Watershed, and the Masungi Wildlife Sanctuary. This agreement between DENR and MGFI is known as the Masungi Geopark Project (MGP).
However, the current administration of DENR under Secretary Antonia Loyzaga has warned during congressional hearings that it plans to cancel the MGP’s memorandum of agreement (MOA) due to its allegedly unconstitutional provision on the project’s perpetual land trust for conservation. This was refuted by the UMWC on the grounds that “the MOA provision in question demonstrates an intent to conserve in perpetuity subject to law, in accordance with the guidelines on privately protected areas of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.”
Reyes said: “No matter how one convolutes these words, the MOA cannot be unconstitutional as it states the questioned provision itself is subject to law. Masungi has already clarified that it intends to manage the area for as long as the law or constitution allows, which is yet to be determined by the courts for conservation. Certainly, privately-led conservation initiatives must require that the government commits the subject lands for conservation over the long-term or permanently, or else the effort will be for naught.”
Regarding the rental rates of Masungi’s facilities and its entrance fees, here is the rejoinder from Reyes: “Masungi is a duly registered non-stock, non-profit organization dedicated to protecting this natural treasure at no cost to the government. The conservation fees go directly to funding habitat restoration, research, community upliftment and rangers’ salaries. The Bureau of Internal Revenue itself has declared that Masungi has no outstanding tax liabilities. It is perplexing to label the thankless and dangerous work of conservation as highly profitable. The pricing model for Masungi’s visitor experiences, though criticized, is necessary to fund ongoing restoration efforts that receive no DENR funding, much like museum foundations.”
MGFI’s trustees have long wanted to share with Loyzaga “the real situation of the watershed as we pursue our mutual goal to find a solution to its continued decline.” They revealed that the problem in the MGP and the adjacent Marikina Watershed is the “massive conspiracy involving syndicates and their cohorts to plunder and destroy the natural wealth of the country” – lamenting that due to this situation, “the government has lost control of the watershed.”
Being a staunch advocate for the environment, Loyzaga should visit Masungi and see for herself – as we did – the dedication and sacrifice of MGFI’s environmental stewards. After all, as Reyes debunked the misconceptions on the project, “the real profiteers here are the large-scale quarries, land grabbers, and their government backers.”
J. Albert Gamboa is a Life Member of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX) and Vice-Chair of the FINEX Ethics Committee. The opinion expressed herein does not necessarily reflect the views of FINEX and Manila Bulletin. #FinexPhils www.finex.org.ph