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)
I would like to thank the PIO Davao Oriental for sending us these photos
ReplyDeleteother photos are lifted from the internet
ReplyDelete