Published
November 16, 2016, 10:00 PM By PIA
Catbalogan City —
Members of the Catbalogan Community Environment and Natural Resources (CENRO)
team has destroyed charcoal kilns in the towns of Villareal and Sta. Margarita.
CENRO Officer Mar
Torres said in a press conference the more than 45 kilns called bulkan in
Villareal and pugon in Sta. Margarita are illegal because they use mangrove for
making charcoal. The pugon in Sta. Margarita can produce more than 30 bags of
charcoal in a single operation, Torres said.
The charcoal is shipped
to Calbayog, Tacloban and Catbalogan where the demand is higher. CENRO said the
kilns’ owners have been identified and charges for violation of environmental
laws are being readied against them.
A DENR casual employee
said that in Villareal, children as young as first graders are already experts
in handling the bulkan which can produce at least two bags of charcoal.
Asked what alternative
livelihood the DENR could provide the charcoal makers, PENR Officer Elpedio
Simon said some P20 million has been set aside for the National Greening
Program (NGP) in the areas where there are many illegal charcoal kilns.
“There are people’s
organization here under contract with DENR for NGP, yet it is sad that they are
still doing this,” Simon said.
He urged the coastal
barangays to stop destroying the mangrove that protects them once calamities
occur. “It is absolutely illegal to cut mangrove species,” Simon said.
He said mangroves are
diverse ecosystems where fish, crabs and other marine life spawn.
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