Marikina watershed is a large place northeast of Manila, Philipines. It has streams and rivers that channel water to the Manila metropolis. That water runs through hills and plains that are covered with trees and crops of many sorts.
The watershed is a protected area. It means that the government has declared by law that certain activities are not allowed to be done there, like logging and factory operations. It also means that lands inside the watershed are not to be sold and settled.
The reason for the protection is for the watershed to naturally help plants, especially trees, to prosper that floods may be prevented. The watershed, during the time of the Americans in 1904, was planned to supply drinking water to Manila. In the time of Marcos, it was viewed as a source of energy. Wawa Dam, which still exists today at the end of the watershed, was built to harness bulk of the the force of the water flowing downstream.
Groups of people who live in the watershed are farmers, indigenous peoples, and landlords. Their houses are connected by cemented and dirt roads, which allow the transport of various goods such as timber, charcoal, vegetables, and fruits. The goods are sold in areas inside Metro Manila. Population pressure, political relationships, and market dynamics left much of the watershed deforested.
To everyone's surprise, in 2009 torrents of water flowed down from the Marikina watershed. The Ondoy disaster happened partly due to denuded forest-watersheds, such as the Marikina watershed. People responded by planting trees, calling on government and civil leaders, and proclaiming the area as a protected landscape. But that has been done before the disaster.
So let me tell you stories.
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ELMER, The Migrant Farmer
Elmer is a farmer in the watershed. Due to poverty, his family migrated from Marikina lowlands to the Marikina watershed in the 1990s. But because of restrictions on land ownership imposed by the government through DENR, his only legal claim to the land is land use, not land ownership. He uses 7 acres, which is easy to claim in the mountains of Rizal province as long as you continually use the land. To leave the land means abandoning the right to use it, according to community values.
His claim is further legalized by membership to a local farmers' organization, which has been granted a tenure by DENR. A tenure means that you don't own the land, but you are given the legal right to use it as long as you don't practice environmentally-unsustainable practices, such as logging, and you help local people raise their quality of living.
He tends to mango and banana trees, which were planted after he slashed and burned previous trees on the hillslopes. The fruits of his labor are sold in the Marikina for the consumption of the lowlanders. The chopped wood that he produces are burned and sold as charcoal.
ANDENG, The House Maker
Andeng takes care of her three kids inside the watershed area. She plants vegetables while Elmer tends to the orchard.
Her two youngest kids attend the local primary school, while her eldest attends the local high school. In fact, the local public schools survive in the hilly and mountainous area because of the fairly large population there. She says that she is content about life.
She knows for a fact that her neighbors are building two-storey concrete homes by selling their land rights. A neighbor once sold the rights to a 10-hectare citrus plantation for Php 900,000 so she dreams of selling her family's land rights, too.
DANTE, The Weekend Farmer
Dante is a homeowner in Pasig. But during Saturdays and Sundays, he goes to Antipolo City in Rizal to inspect his farm in the Marikina watershed. Victor, Elmer's friend, takes care of Dante's mango farm for a fee. Victor sold the land rights to his 9-acre property to Dante three years ago. Dante, arriving on his Mitsubishi Pajero, tells Victor to spray the mango fruits with pesticides to ensure a bountiful harvest. Victor doesn't know that Dante wants to sell the land rights to another Pasig resident unknown to him. Meanwhile other local residents are increasingly losing lands to claim for farming rights.
LITO, The Farmers' Leader
Like Elmer, Lito's family moved to the watershed because of poverty. They're from an island in the Visayas. Before, the settlement of Elmer's family in the watershed was illegal but in the 1990s, they were given a tenure in the area through his presidency in a farmers' organization. The farmers' organization was given a 25-year tenure on the condition that no one will practice unsustainable livelihood, such as logging and charcoal making. He bemoans the fact that not all people in the tenured area of the watershed is a member of the organization and thus not conforming to the environmental rules; one of his officers make charcoal.
Because of reforestation project grants from DENR and other sources of income, he now has an SUV and a two-storey home in construction. Also, he sold his citrus plantation for Php 900,000 last year.
One of the ultimate goals of his organization is to have the tenured area exempted from protection that people inside the area can have land titles, which mean land ownership, which mean that the owners can do more things that they want with their land, including unsustainable practices. By the way, he hates Dante and the barangay captain, who beat him in the last election.
BENITO, The Charcoal Merchant
Benito lives in the central area of one of the barangays in the watershed. He lives across the street from Lito's house and exports bags of charcoals through jeepneys. Full loads are sent to the lowlands for sale through the only paved road that leads out of the barangay into the main highway. Lito is also angry at him, because Benito is violating the laws of the watershed. Benito earns a lot from selling charcoals and is a friend of a DENR watchman.
ARNALDO, The Barangay Captain
Arnaldo won the captainship in the last barangay election. His leadership has set up a barangay checkpoint against the transport of logs and charcoal.
Recently, he was given by the congressman Php 2,000,000 for development projects, Php 600,000 of which is for the rehabilitation of a water system for drinking and other uses. But his leadership spends the Php 600,000 for hair combs. Now people in the area subscribe to another local water system for a fee despite the abundance of natural springs in the watershed.
Lito and Arnaldo used to be friends. When both of them were running for captainship, Lito was the choice of the populace. But instead, Arnaldo won because the voters were bribed by money from Rosa, Dante's wife, and owner of a local resort frequented by students of high-class schools from Quezon City.
ROSA, The Resort Owner
Rosa runs a classy tropical resort and campsite inside the tenured area. Her family's facility is about 10-hectares, parts of which are for lodges, swimming pools, gazebos, mess halls, and tree-covered areas.
In her facilities, dialogues between foreigners and local indigenous people happen; cultural presentations are offered, too. The two groups talk about the needs of the community. The indigenous people state their need. The foreigners nod in courtesy. But most of the promised projects never happen.
By law, the facility shouldn't be there. But she's protected by Arnaldo. And she was a buddy of a late congressman.
MARIO, The DENR watchman
Being an avid environmentalist, from time to time he mans a post along the road from the tenured area to apprehend jeepney drivers who export charcoal from the watershed. Those caught are given proper sanctions.
Yet he does not catch all of them. Vlady, his colleague, is Benito's friend and contact. When Mario does his rounds as charcoal watchman, Vlady sends a text message to Benito to postpone the transport of charcoal loads. Benito's jeepneys, with the charcoal loads, stay in front of Benito's house; Lito, the farmer-leader, watches in anguish.
FRED, The Public Official
Fred is a member of the environmental protection committee of a big government body. Months ago, he and five other officials were invited by Lito to the tenured area. Lito showed to Fred and his five friends the condition of the tenured area, and that the large number of people there merited land titling, which means that land ownership, not just land rights, can be sold to anyone who can buy.
The public officials agreed to sponsor the reclassification of the land that land titles may be issued. The land, with a major river running through it, is right in the middle of the Marikina watershed.
ROBERT, The Policeman
He and his buddies maintain and man a checkpoint, to which the road from the tenured area leads. Their mandate is to catch merchants of logs and charcoal. Money opens doors; jeepney operators pay Robert Php 1,500 per month per jeep for easy passage.
A few kilometers away, an army detachment was also given the same mandate, while guarding against local insurgency.
Therefore, the charcoal jeepneys pass four checkpoints of four institutions - barangay, DENR, police, and army. But such jeepneys are invisible.
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In September 2009, torrents of floodwater poured down from the watershed to inundate the Metropolis, along with water from other watersheds. To the horror of Filipinos, cars, homes, and lives were washed away.
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MELINDA, The Homeowner from Marikina
She came back to her home after the Ondoy flood. All of her appliances and furniture now lie muddy and wet. Floodwaters overturned her car, which is still in her garage, but flipped.
Her home is near the banks of the Marikina River, much of the sources of which are from the Marikina Watershed. She looked at her daughter, sat down, and cried.
ALVIN, The Student from Quezon City
The elevation of his boarding house was quite higher. But he, too, was horrified by the Ondoy disaster. The local news anchor tells him that deforestation in the watershed is to blame. Inspired and moved by the situation, he joins an effort by an organization to plant tree saplings in the tenured area.
Years after, the young trees are cut; charcoals are made; bribes are paid; wood goods are sold; land is continually populated and cleared; a tropical storm is brewing over the Pacific Ocean and is about to hit the watershed.
At the same time, two years after the disaster, a government official announces that the watershed is now put under a new regime of management, and calls on the participation of the government and civil leaders. He strongly encourages reforestation.
But that has been done before.
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These are based from true stories. Names of actual persons were not used. But please share this that people will be moved.
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