NEWSFLASH

30,000 JOIN PALAWAN FOREST FESTIVAL

Puerto Princesa City, June 27, 2000 - More than 30,000 people from various sectors led by students and other youth flocked this weekend to the denuded slopes of an abandoned mercury mining site to plant 100,000 seedlings to celebrate the 10th year of the ''Pista Y Ang Kagueban'' or the ''Feast of the Forest.''

Sitio Magarwak in barangay Santa Lourdes
‘invaded’ by eager tree planters as early as 4 a.m. despite intermittent rains.

Senate President Franklin Drilon, Puerto Princesa Mayor Edward Hagedorn, and Ellen M. Hagedorn led the tree planting and other festivities at the reforestation site.

"Pista Y Ang Kagueban" has become one of the city's most exciting and successful celebrations in the past nine years that has become part of the local culture. The annual tree planting has resulted in the reforestation of the city's main water source - the Irawan watershed - with more than a million trees thriving in the watershed area that was once devastated by illegal logging and slash-and-burn farming (kaingin).

This year, a portion of nearly 19 hectares of denuded slopes on both sides of the Magarwak river in barangay Santa Lourdes were replanted with seedlings of indigenous trees like agoho, manga-manga, narra, tanabag, mahogany, acacia mangium, and gmelina.

Aerial seeding by the city helicopter dispersed 305 kilos of Palawan cherry, tamarind, guyabano, and atis seeds.

City environment officer Rogelio Daquer said it would take five years before the city government and city residents can totally reforest the area which has been turned into a reservation camp for the Boy Scouts of the Philippines (BSP).

Mayor Hagedorn said the reforestation effort on the denuded slopes of sitio Magarwak will also prevent mercury deposits in the soil caused by decades of destructive mercury mining in the area from flowing out with rainwater to destroy the rich marine resources in nearby Honda Bay.

Hagedorn said the ten years of celebrating the "Feast of the Forest" has not only developed "a new consciousness among city residents to protect the environment but has also helped in creating a new way of life, a culture of nurturing and caring for the environment that has enabled Puerto Princesa and its people to earn local and international recognition honors as the Philippines' Cleanest and Greenest City."

Hagedorn, who adopted and expanded the reforestation project in 1993 from the Palawan Integrated Area Project Development Office, appealed to his constituents to continue with the celebration even after his term ends in 2001.