Towering in 5,369-foot height at its peak, Mt. Hamiguitan treasures rare flowers, plants, animals and insects. I find them truly amazing. I stop short of breathing when I see the unending winding rivers and the waterfalls gushing with cool, misty, fresh white water.
I cannot not blink as I pan my eyes in a wide horizon of thick mossy forest of century-old bonsai trees. Colourful butterflies in variety of species are flying around a hidden garden amidst dipterocarp forests, underneath grow various types of plants. Among them are endemic orchids and rare carnivorous pitcher plants. As I look up the sky, eagles are flying at the horizon brightly lit up by the sun which rays refreshingly blend with cool mountain breeze .
This was how Mayor Justina Yu of San Isidro, Davao Oriental recalled her experience with Mt. Hamiguitan when she first climbed it in 1992 to explore it with 34 other municipal officials. She got interested to take the climb after a visit of an old Mandaya Chieftain, Daramba Bago who told her, sometime in 1965, about the rich forest of Mt. Hamiguitan.
Her uphill climb went on for years beyond 1992 as she fought to protect the mountain and its treasures against miners and loggers. Such quest resonated beyond the borders of her town, touching the consciousness of officials in neighbouring towns of Governor Generoso and the city of Mati to protect Mt. Hamiguitan from the lure of mining and logging money.
Mayors Vicente Orencia of Governor Generoso, Carlo Rabat of Mati and Yu have come to a common ground of protecting and conserving Mt. Hamiguitan (including its buffer zones) which straddles across their towns. Orencia pitches total prohibition of entry into the buffer zone shielding the mountain range; Rabat calls for uniform LGU policies to protect it, while Yu still wages her battle-cry against mining and illegal logging.
The call and quest to protect and preserve Mt. Hamiguitan echoed through the halls of Congress with the passage in 2004 of Republic Act 9303, An Act Declaring Mt. Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary and Its Vicinities as Protected Area, through efforts of then Congressman Mayo Almario, now the vice governor of Davao Oriental.
Lately, Provincial Governor Corazon Malanyaon successfully put Mt. Hamiguitan on the world’s pedestal of wildlife and nature protection. On June 23, 2014, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) inscribed it as a World Heritage Site.
The process of getting the nod of approval of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee was long and arduous. The provincial government team spearheaded by tourism consultant, Cynthia “Ging” Rodriguez, took six long years to comply the standard documentation requirements of UNESCO. It was, however, through the leadership of Malanyaon that wide stakeholders’ support came together and moved forward efforts to gain UNESCO’s much-coveted inscription.
While thanking the World Heritage Committee for the inscription of Mt. Hamiguitan, Malanyaon vowed to protect and conserve its “universal value and integrity”. “The conservation of this property is the Filipino people’s gift to humanity,” she said before officials and members of the World Heritage Committee during its 38th Session in Doha, Qatar.
Mt. Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary which straddles in a land area of 16,923 hectares with a buffer zone of 9,729 hectares based on UNESCO’s documentation, stands as the only UNESCO-inscribed site in Mindanao. It is the only mountain range in the Philippines categorized as a World Heritage Site and the sixth UNESCO-inscribed wildlife sanctuary in the world.
It came in as the sixth UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Philippines. Others earlier inscribed were the city of Vigan (Ilocos Sur), the Baroque churches of the Philippines (the Miag-ao Church in Ilo-ilo, the Paoay Church in Ilocos Norte, the San Agustin Church in Manila and the Sta. Maria Church in Ilocos Sur), the Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras, the Tubbataha Reef Natural Park and the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River.
The UNESCO inscription of Mt. Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary surely is a beacon for visitors to site-see what’s in the mountain but strict regulation policies still keep off curious people. Besides, Governor Malanyaon has made it clear that protecting Mt. Hamiguitan is the paramount reason of seeking UNESCO’s inscription. There are plans of creating an “interpretation site” , for tourism purposes, to give a glimpse of what’s in Mt. Hamiguitan but up to this time, the mountain is still closed to so-called recreational trekkers.
Only very few have scaled the heights of Mt. Hamiguitan to see nature’s wondrous beauty it has long been keeping at its bosom. The public in general can only imagine and marvel at bounty of its flora and fauna based on pictures and written accounts of those who have gone there. People’s imagination is better kept that way and leave Mt. Hamiguitan with its untouched beauty. (Jeanevive Duron-Abangan, PIA XI)
