CEBU CITY – Leyte fourth district Rep. Richard Gomez is fighting for the rehabilitation of the Palompon Watershed Forest Reserve (PWFR) which is facing worsening degradation due to pollution, forest loss, and encroachment.

Gomez sought urgent rehabilitation to restore PWFR’s ecological balance and safeguard water resources for nearby communities.

Gomez said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Eastern Visayas (DENR) and the local government of Palompon must take decisive and immediate action to rehabilitate the watershed.

The lawmaker’s call came after a recent study by the DENR showed PWFR’s forests, flora, and fauna are in critical condition.

“The real damage there is to the water — the forest, the flora, and the fauna have all been destroyed. We have to rehabilitate that,” Gomez told reporters on Wednesday, Oct. 8.

Gomez said authorities should not just give up just because residents have started encroaching and commercialism have entered the protected area.

“We can’t just say, ‘Since people and commercial activities have already entered the area, let’s stop making it a protected area.’ That’s the wrong approach,” Gomez said.

The DENR-Region 8 Protected Area Suitability Assessment showed that much of the PWFR’s natural vegetation has been converted into farmlands and settlements, which resulted in fragmented habitats and declining biodiversity.

The study also showed poor water quality in the Sabang and Agbanga Rivers, with high phosphate and fecal coliform levels, making them unsafe for recreational or domestic use.

Instead of abandoning the watershed, Gomez said the government should pursue programs that would benefit residents and make them active partners in conservation.

“They will preserve the area because they know that they are making a living out of it,” Gomez added.

Covering 5,653.57 hectares across the municipalities of Palompon, Matag-ob, and Villaba, the PWFR provides essential watershed functions that support the region’s agriculture and domestic water supply.

But years of neglect and encroachment have severely weakened its capacity to sustain these functions.

Gomez said without swift intervention, degradation in the Palompon watershed could affect nearby localities, including Isabel and Ormoc City, by disrupting the water systems connected to the reserve.

Rising fecal coliform levels and unchecked dumping of poultry and industrial waste as the urgent threats that must be addressed, said Gomez.

Gomez in 2023 exposed alleged land use and environmental violations in towns under his district, including waste pollution from the DBSN chicken dressing plant.

Gomez accused local officials and the DENR of neglecting illegal dumping and improper forest land reclassification.

In 2024, the Tacloban City Regional Trial Court Branch 45 dismissed former Palompon Mayor Ramon Oñate’s petition to nullify a DENR search warrant issued against DBSN Farms Agriventures Corp., a company owned by his family.

The court upheld the warrant’s validity, allowing authorities to inspect the facility over alleged dumping of poultry waste within the PWFR.