By Manny Piñol
On January 5, shortly after I visited the village of Anungan in Sibuco, Zamboanga del Norte, I asked Sibuco Mayor Bong Edding to join me in the helicopter piloted by Capt. Butch Israel to conduct an aerial survey of the portion of the Zamboanga Mountain Range where logging operations are being done by a company known as DACON to local residents but officially bears the name Sodaco Development Corporation or SODECO.
Residents of Sibuco and the other towns located along the coast of Zamboanga del Norte who suffered massive losses in their farms and properties and who lost many relatives who were swept to the sea by flash floods which killed almost 100 people are blaming the logging operations for the flash floods and mudslides which covered thousands of hectares of farm lands.
I am sharing this video to the followers of this page so that they will understand how I, Mayor Edding and even Capt. Israel felt upon seeing the vast portions of the mountains cleared of trees with massive land slides.
Records which I saw showed that SODECO was given a concession of 19,000 hectares in the mountains of Sibuco under the Integrated Social Forestry program of the government where they are supposed to undertake trees farming and replanting in logged over areas.
What I saw, however, was vastly contrary to what was supposed to have been done. Newly constructed logging roads snaked through thick forests and there was widespread clearing of the forests.
Below the deforested portions of the mountains, rivers are filled with brown colored water indicating soil erosion.
Lest I be misunderstood, let me clarify that I am not dipping my fingers into the affairs and concerns of another department.
Were it not for the fact that thousands of agricultural lands and dozens of fishermen were killed in the recent calamity believed caused by flash floods, I would not have raised this issue.
As I have indicated in my previous post, I will submit my observation to President Rody Duterte because I believe that something has got to be done about this, or else worse tragedies are going to befall on the people of the coastal towns of Zamboanga del Norte in the future.
The mudslides and siltation will also destroy agriculture and fisheries in the area and when that happens, as in the case of Zambales, the situation will become irreversible.
https://fb.watch/aNWwJauXum/
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