[BUKIDNON VIEWS] MAAYONG UGMA: BUKIDNON 2023: Fr. Rey Raluto’s Aspirations for the environment in Bukidnon

MALAYBALAY CITY (BukidnonNews.Net) Environmentalist and Jesus Nazareno (Libona) parish priest Fr. Reynaldo Raluto offered his aspirations over seven ecological concerns in Bukidnon for the Maayong Ugma: Bukidnon 2023 initiative. 

Fr. Raluto is among those who responded to the call by BukidnonNews.Net to speak up through the initiative for citizens aspirations for the province of Bukidnon and its people.

“I have seven ecological concerns that I hope our local government unit in the province could help lobby with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources:

1. Respect the forests as protected areas for critical watersheds, critical habitats for endangered species and ancestral domains: home to indigenous peoples.

2. Restore forest cover beginning with the 60% of watersheds which are currently denuded.

3.Protect the remaining primary forests from resource extraction activities such as logging and mining.

4.Declare watershed areas and primary forest as no-go zones for resource extraction.

5. Preserve the protected areas as such, in all regimes that these have been established (Congress, Presidential Proclamation/Executive Order) including those implemented by local government units, local communities and indigenous peoples. These areas should also be no-go zones for resource extraction.

6. Observe the no-go zones enumerated in Section 19 of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, in particular old growth forests, proclaimed watershed forest reserves, wilderness areas, mangrove forests, mossy forests, national parks/municipal forests, parks, greenbelts game refuge and bird sanctuaries. 

7. Retain the no-go zones in the following areas: prime agricultural lands, tourism development areas, island ecosystems, areas with critical slopes, recharge areas of aquifers and other environmentally-critical areas.”

MAAYONG UGMA: BUKIDNON 2023 is a crowd sourcing initiative of BukidnonNews.Net for Citizens Aspirations for Bukidnon province and its peoples. The initiative is a continuation of previous efforts on Reporting Governance, through interaction with citizens via virtual and in-person engagement under the Piniyalan Reporting Governance Community Project. Piniyalan is Cebuano for someone entrusted or made as steward. Bukidnon Views is the opinion section of BukidnonNews.Net.