Green group: Stop ‘rape’ of Sierra Madre to prevent flashfloods
LUCENA CITY — Environmental group Tanggol Kalikasan (TK) has called on government authorities to stop the continued destruction of the Sierra Madre mountain ranges to avert flooding in the lowlands during typhoons and heavy rains.
“What the government should focus on now is the serious implementation of laws and genuine environmental protection to prevent and stop illegal logging, quarrying, and mining in the Sierra Madre,” Jay Lim, TK project officer, said in an interview on Friday.
He added: “Those multi-billion pesos flood control projects are useless if the widespread cutting of trees in the Sierra Madre continues.”
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) revealed the government has allotted more than P225 billion for flood prevention projects.
During his third State of the Nation Address (Sona) on July 22, President Marcos said the government has completed over 5,500 flood control initiatives, with 10 more such projects costing P500 billion in the offing between 2024 to 2037.
Lim maintained that while tree planting is important and necessary amid the worsening effects of climate change, “it is better to protect what remains of our natural forests.”
Loss of old-growth forest
The Sierra Madre ranges contain the largest remaining tract of old-growth tropical rainforest in the country. It spans Luzon’s northeastern coast from Cagayan province in the north to Quezon province in the south.
Its long elevation acts as an effective barrier against storms, slowing their movement, which helps spread rain more evenly and provides disaster risk reduction agencies more time to issue warnings and evacuations.
However, illegal logging, mining, and quarrying have significantly damaged the original rainforest, leading to increased landslides and flash floods as storms become more frequent and severe.
During last week’s onslaught of Super Typhoon Carina, Metro Manila and nearby towns in Rizal, Bulacan and other parts of northern Luzon experienced severe flooding, most of them for the first time.
Lim warned that with the coming election, local politicians in localitthe slope of Sierra Madre would again take advantage of the bribe money from illegal loggers as campaign funds.
“There is a spike in illegal logging activities during local elections. The incumbent local politicians allow the rape of the Sierra Madre for the fund,” Lim lamented.
The town of Mauban in Quezon, which faces the Pacific Ocean, has long been known as a trans-shipment point of poached logs from the Sierra Madre mountain ranges in Cagayan and Isabela in northern Luzon.
2004 tragedy
Massive logging in the Sierra Madre mountain ranges had been blamed for the 2004 tragedy in northern Quezon that also destroyed billions of pesos worth of property.
At the height of continuous rains brought by three successive typhoons, the Agos River between Infanta and General Nakar towns overflowed.
The towns were inundated with mud and water, and brought along its deadly path huge logs and other forest debris cascading from the Sierra Madre where the river originates.
More than 900 people died in the flood in Infanta. The number of fatalities in General Nakar reached several hundreds, including more than 100 Agta tribal members. “If the rape of Sierra Madre will not be decisively stop, more tragic floods will happen during every typhoon in Luzon,” Lim warned.
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