Negros Occidental had daunting environmental problems. Commercial
logging up to the 1970’s followed by rampant illegal
logging reduced the province’s forest cover from 38%
of the total land area to only 4.7%. Because of armed illegal
loggers and NPA units in the forests, the DENR was too scared
to enforce the forestry laws. Administratively, the forests
in the mountains were divided like slices of a pie among
numerous municipalities making an integrated environmental
program difficult. In 1995, heavy floods in Northern Negros
killed 13 people and destroyed millions of pesos worth of
agricultural crops. Ironically, during the dry season, farms
said to have been irrigated all year round in the past could
no longer have a second cropping because of lack of irrigation
water.
The Provincial Environment Management Office (PEMO)
created in 1992 was strengthened in 1993 when Gov. Coscolluela
declared the Environment War (later called Balik Ilahas
meaning Bring Back the Wild Animals), an integrated environmental
management program. The North Negros Forest Reserve Management
Council and the South Negros Coastal Management Council
were created to coordinate the various efforts. Executive
Order No. 95-11 was issued by the governor creating the
Task Force Ilahas to focus on the enforcement of environmental
laws. There were 20 regular composite members of the task
force composed of personnel from various government agencies,
the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, PNP
Provincial Command, PNP Regional Mobile Forces and volunteers
from the private sector. Due to the overwhelming support
from the populace, Task Force Ilahas had around 185 assets
composed of 135 Bantay Bukid (Forest Watch members) and
30 indigenous tribe members called Tribu Ati. All of them
were stationed in hot spot areas to provide information
on persons engaged in illegal and destructive forest activities.
Thousands of community-based volunteers were also mobilized
for the various environmental activities.
Under Balik Ilahas, 1.3 million board feet of illegally-sourced
logs worth P9.5 million were seized, 64 criminal cases were
filed for violation of the Revised Forestry Code with seven
convictions, an estimated annual damage of P47 million due
to timber poaching was curtailed and 16,420 hectares in
the upland areas was reforested. Over a million tree seedlings
were planted with 76% survival rate. As a result, provincial
forest cover increased to 7%; most of the illegal logging
activities stopped; and faith in the government’s
ability to protect the environment was restored.
