DAVAO CITY,
March 30 (PIA) A top official of the Department of Tourism XI expressed concern
on the direct impact of the Mt. Apo forest fire to the local communities and
the local stakeholders like the porters and habal-habal drivers whose
livelihood might be affected by the incident.
Roberto
Alabado III, director of the Department of Tourism XI said many porters,
habal-habal drivers, local communities leading to the peak derive their income
from the climbers who visit the site.
He said he is
coordinating with the local government units in the area to come up with the data
of the number of people affected by the incident.
Alabado
welcomes whatever decision reached by the Protected Areas Management and the
local government units of Bansalan, Digos and Sta Cruz to close down the climb
as an offshoot of the forest fire and to give time for the mountain to be
rehabilitated.
“It will be
the decision of the PAMB on what to do.
After all we have to check first the safety of the trails,” he said.
Alabado said
that annually, 900 climbers pass through the Sta. Cruz trail, but more than 50
percent of the climbers comes from Davao Region alone per year.
He said an
estimated 5,000 climbers from Davao Region alone, climb Mt. Apo yearly.
Alabado said
he needs the data from the local government units to qualify this estimate.
(PIA 11-Joey Sem G. Dalumpines)
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