LAKEDanao is decidedly one of the coolest places to be in the country especially during summer months and hot weekends. Its 148-hectare guitar-like shape lie in the midst of forested mountains some 700 meters above sea level, and, on any day, its deep and dark mysterious waters never fail to attract nature lovers, adventure-seekers, hikers and even cyclists who see the place as their mecca of a long hard climb on lazy Saturdays or Sundays.
This is apparently one of the reasons why the Department of Tourism has selected the lake as one of its few ecotourist destinations in region 8. Lake Danao has largely maintained its unspoiled look, and photography enthusiasts among its stream of visitors always manage to bring home souvenir photos, one of their favorite themes being scenes of its shimmering water ranged against a background of dark blue forested mountains. These photos eventually find their way to the internet for the entire world to see. Now one hears of Europeans planning a trip to the place to experience it and bask in its deep mysteries.
Yet there is an evolving drama arising from among its human stakeholders that could spoil its game plan as a top ecotourist attraction. These conflicts, if unresolved, might just dampen this plan and delay its development for several more years. At the moment, the stakeholders have come to a stalemate, with neither one of the protagonists giving way to the other and nary a resolution in sight.
According to the National Integrated Protected Area Systems (NIPAS) Law enacted in 1998, the management of the Lake Danao Park is supposed to be under a Protected Area Management Board or PAMB composed of the DENR, the LGU, Philippine National Oil Company, people’s organizations and the barangay local government and some NGOs. The law has designated a number of representatives from each group and the Ormoc City government is entitled to only one seat.
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City wants more seats
Since the PAMB was convened some years ago, its DENR representatives have been quite liberal about the number of participants attending meetings and participating in the group’s deliberations – until some weeks ago when top a DENR official from the regional office, Protected Area and Wildlife Division Chief Cora Makabenta presented the approved list of representatives from the DENR central office per papers submitted to the office. Now two city kagawads, Jose Alfaro Jr., an avowed environmentalist, and Sotero Pepito can no longer sit in PAMB deliberations because, according to the DENR document, the city is entitled to only one representative, not two, much less three.
The city could not accept that, of course, and would not take the issue sitting down. Apparently, it wants to ensure that its own tourism plans are not compromised. For one, it has already started widening the circumferential road and putting concrete slabs on a trail near the lake so that, obviously, trekkers will get no muddy feet afterwards. According to PAMB plans, it was only going to re-establish a trail, not a pathwalk with concrete slabs.
Earlier, the city hired a private contractor to build a viewing deck near the old DENR office. Whether or not such a deck was approved by PAMB is now immaterial. The deck exists, looking like a white ghost of concrete amidst green surroundings. With this deck, the city also constructed a number of comfort rooms to the tune of more than a million pesos. Now these comfort rooms cannot be used because, ironically, the place has no water system. Visitors have to pee against trees or hide behind bushes to unload their gall bladder.
The city has not disclosed its other tourism plans for the lake. It would not do so in a board that is dominated by POs and NGOs anyway. Its unconcealed bias against NGO presence came out in Kagawad Alfaro’s asking why there were more NGOs in the board than LGU representatives. But there are loose talks of plans to relocate the barangay site to a place outside the lake’s immediate vicinity.
Ecoli in the lake
The local residents have been largely, though unofficially, blamed for the presence of ecoli bateria, an indicator of unsanitary dumping of human wastes to the lake. This is especially alarming to the water consumers of the eastern part of Leyte who derived their drinking water from this lake’s overflow.
The ecoli could likewise result from improper waste throwing by raft users inside a small cubicle that serve as comfort rooms. The probability of such contamination is not farfetched. Some raft users are bound to experience gastric discomforts after hours of lazing around and gorging on half-cooked fish or roasted meat in the comfort of the floating raft.
Fish kills have been likewise reported in the vicinity of the barangay elementary school where a garbage dump, a hole in the ground, has been seen to overflow on rainy days.
The ecoli argument provides enough ammunition for the city to implementation its hush-hush relocation scheme, but so far no activity has been seen towards this. This issue is no laughing matter but one that is politically loaded. It could stir up the dormant wellspring of emotions and muddle up the issue of ecotourism all the more.
A bit of history
Long before the NIPAS Law was enacted in 1998, several families living near the lake had staked their claims on the fertile slopes around the lake, clearing its forests and burning felled trees to make way for small patches of kaingin farms. These claims, though untitled, range from a few hectares to some 400 hectares filed by an old family in the area. Evicting them from the site could be interpreted as evicting them from their old claims, their sources of income. Apparently, the local government does not want to touch that sensitive issue. Neither does the DENR or the PNOC for that matter.
And so the rape of the forests around the lake continues almost unperturbed. One simply has to go beyond the lush exterior of the forest cover to find fresh clearings and new kaingin farms, young and old trees laid to waste. The city agricultural office can offer them no viable alternative, except urge them to plant cash crops for the market, using loads of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. In lieu of cash crops, the city wanted the Fiber Development Authority to put up an abaca stripping machine in the area to encourage the farmers to plant abaca.
The PNOC has likewise latched on to the abaca idea, organizing resident farmers in Lake Danao, financing their abaca nursery and helping them in their small abaca plantations. With the failure of cash crops, many farmers have converted their kaingins into profitable abaca plantations, in the process, cementing their claims on lands that are supposed to be protected conservation sites.
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Unresolved issues
Now the DENR feels helpless. The problems of the farmers have made their task more complicated as it does not have any influence on the barangay residents. Technical director Ricardo Tomol himself has admitted that the DENR has to partner with the city to manage the Lake Danao natural park. In fact, a draft of a co-management agreement has been written down but its discussion has been deferred because of the representation issue brought up earlier by city council representatives Alfaro and Pepito.
Will Tomol, in his bid for co-management, buckle down to give way to the city’s demand for more representation? Will the city even consider the idea of co-management, knowing that it has its own tourism plans for the lake? Can there be a viable ecotourism program when the rape of Lake Danao’s forests continues unperturbed?
As it is, dark clouds hang ominously over Lake Danao that could easily prove disastrous to its ecotourism program. **
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