The office of the Protected Areas Management Board (PAMB) and the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), two offices under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)–Cordillera issued their respective suspension orders against Hon. Max H. Edwin Jr., over the alleged illegal operations of a dumpsite in Purok 1, Pinsao Proper.
Two other private projects, the Stone Kingdom of businessman Pio Velasco and Dragon Stone Castle by Terio Yubos and his family were issued respective cease and desist order notices after government environment personnel discovered violations that required them to get the necessary permits before operating.
But before I go on, the alarming sound of firetrucks wailing away at nearby Magsaysay Avenue reminds me that we are in the fiery months of March and April, not discounting the fact that the atmosphere could even become hotter due to all the political mudslinging and debates.
Fires in residential districts as well as in forests in the Cordillera and in other forested regions in the country, whether accidental, natural, or intentional, are serious tragedies.
One problem encountered by concerned government agencies is the unabated kaingin system of agriculture that probably aggravates the “fire” problem. The kaingin system is the utilization of fire to clear land for mountain agriculture and grazing.
This practice compounds the El Niño phenomenon that has been a problem with no foreseeable solution. In fact, forest fires are an everyday scene in the forested mountains of Benguet, Kalinga and Mountain Province that are occupied by pioneering vegetable farmers.
The other causes of forest fires are lightning discharges and natural combustion blamed on the hot weather. If forest fires in many areas occur at the same time, how can these be fought when the government, in addition to community volunteers, is short of forest guards?
Sometime in 2012, around 530 former Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CPLA) cadres were hired as forest guards by the DENR. Each forest guard received a monthly allowance of P8,000.
While integrating former CPLA cadres into the fold of the law was welcome, this was resented by villagers who had to volunteer with no pay because they knew that they only had themselves to blame if the forests around them were unprotected from fires.
Doling out money to hire forest guards was in conflict with the villagers’ volunteerism. But in place of hiring forest guards from outside, the government should instead pay village resident-volunteers whose motivations to protect their surroundings are naturally genuine.
Fires in residential districts as well as in forests in the Cordillera and in other forested regions in the country, whether accidental, natural, or intentional, are serious tragedies.
Talking to forester friends in the DENR, I was told that there was in the late ‘70s a helicopter that was assigned as part of their quick response program to fighting forest fires that recurred during the summer months.
For some reason, this was stopped. Reports also revealed that everytime the chopper came by to drop firefighters, children from a nearby village were already at the scene of the fire. Their story reminded me how I used to skip class just to see a helicopter land in front of me.
What was bad, as logged in the foresters’ book was that, for the sake of seeing helicopters land nearby, the innocent kids in some instances intentionally put the bushes ablaze.
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Back to the CDO notices, Stone Kingdom businessman Pio Velasco said his staff is presently completing the requirements stipulated in the suspension order. As for the CDO issued to Dragon Stone, efforts to contact the owners were unsuccessful. Probably, they are on their feet, rushing to finish the PAMB requirements in time for its operation full blast.
Incidentally, Max H. Edwin is the “honorable” Indigenous People Mandatory Representative (IPMR) of Baguio City as indicated in the letterhead that he used. In the case relative to his dumping site, a letter sent to PB Raymund C. Laxamana of Pinsao Proper speaks for himself.
In his private capacity, Hon. Edwin used the IPMR letterhead to ask the Sanggunian Barangay thru the PB to issue him a barangay resolution for the completion of his application for a clearance from the office of the PAMB which was a requirement for the issuance of an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) by the EMB.
Meanwhile, upon verification at the EMB office sometime in the middle of February, it was learned that no ECC application for a dumping site at Purok 1 of Pinsao Proper was filed by Edwin.
On February 19, 2025, PB Laxamana, on behalf of the constituents of Barangay Pinsao Proper, wrote Engr. Jean C. Borromeo, the OIC–Regional Director of EMB, to inform the latter of IPMR Edwin’s request for an endorsement of his dumpsite project.
PB Laxamana further stated in his letter that during their ocular inspection of farm-to-market roads, they noticed that hundreds of cubic meters of debris, soil, rocks and assorted waste construction material were already dumped and continue to be dumped at the site.
The barangay officials who were on an ocular inspection in their area believed that the dumping of waste construction material is a violation of environment laws and harmful to residential homes. They informed the EMB that residents around the area petitioned against dumping activities some two years ago.
Following an inspection by the PAMB staff a week ago, Marcos Highway Forest Reserve Protected Area (MHFRPA) Supt. Dorothy Joy Cayaba issued a CDO requiring Edwin to submit documents and a sworn statement for his failure to secure a PAMB clearance before dumping at the site.
The CDO suspended all development activities at Edwin’s project site and he was further asked to explain why no fine and administrative sanctions shall be imposed against him. The PAMB team found that there was dumping at his project site without a PAMB clearance, a violation of the National Integrated Protected Area System (NIPAS) law.
Following the PAMB CDO, Engr. Borromeo of the EMB issued on March 17, 2025 a notice to Baguio IPMR Edwin, citing his violations of PD 1586 or the Philippine Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) system, based on reports by the EMB personnel. One of the violations cited was “project implementation without an Environmental Compliance Certificate.”
