DAVAO CITY, Dec 10 (PIA) A top officer of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Davao Region cited the depletion of the forest cover which aggravated the occurrence of flash flood in New Bataan, Compostela Valley and the towns of Cateel, Baganga, and Boston, Davao Oriental amid the onslaught of typhoon Pablo Tuesday.
Josilyn Marcus Fragada, director of the DENR XI said the devastation created by the storm to many communities only indicates the long practice of illegal logging activities in the region, which the current administration tried to arrest in the past two years with the implementation of Executive Order 23 banning the logging activities in Mindanao.
He also observed that the typhoons nowadays are stronger compared to the storms in the past, an offshoot of the climate change, prompting their office to encourage residents to stop cutting and plant more trees.
“We have to plant more trees in Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental areas,” Fragada pointed out.
He also attributed to the strong wind and rainfall brought about by the storm to the uprooting of many trees which destroyed many bridges during the flashflood.
Fragada said there were also cut logs before which were drifted during the flash flood.
“We coordinated with the local governments for the retrieval of previously cut logs. It so happened that they were carried downstream during the typhoon,” he said.
Fragada said they are still waiting more reports from the field since many areas have not yet been reached by authorities.
Engr. Edilberto Arreza, director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau XI welcomed the information citing negative casualty in the mining areas of the region.
He said even in small-scale mining areas, there were no casualties during and after the storm.
Arreza said six-shanties were reported to have been hit by a landslide in Pantukan, but there were no casualties because of the pre-emptive evacuation of miners.
“I am glad that all our warnings reached the miners who immediately conducted pre-emptive evacuation,” he said.
Arreza clarified that there agency is still investigating if mining operation aggravated the occurrence of mudflow and flashflood .
He said that as far as their agency is concerned, Barangay Andap is a watershed area, where exploiting of natural resources like cutting of trees and mining activities are prohibited.
Arreza said they are also verifying the report that a natural catch basin in the highlands of Barangay Andap gave way causing massive destruction downstream.
“Andap still have plenty of trees which might have fallen and created a natural dam which gave way amid the storm. We are still verifying it. The area has two active water tributaries,” he said. (PIA XI-Joey Sem G. Dalumpines)
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