Notes from the North

Along the road  in sitio Saudi, Bulo, Tabuk City, there’s a thick man-made forest. The mahogany trees  which make it up have heights ranging from 15 to 20 feet with the biggest having a trunk diameter of a foot at the base.  They are planted in neat lines and in regular intervals.  At that time, we were  rushing back to the center from a visit to Burubor, Bulo  but so impressed I was with the human accomplishment that I told  my companion Teofilo Pittong, Jr. to stop the XRM so we could shoot the refreshing spectacle.  

My intention was to have a proof that contrary to what the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) would want us to believe, it is possible to grow a forest in the province.

Sometime later when I found the time, I sought out Rodolfo “Damagen” Apil to learn directly from him how his family managed to grow the forest and in the process, inflict a resounding slap on the face of the DENR.  He told me that he first thought of  growing trees on his land when he heard from the DENR sometime in 1994 that  you could grow rich by planting trees. So rather than let the portion of their pastureland on the other side of the road  measuring around six hectares remain idle and because he does not see his children doing dry farming in the future they going to school, he decided to embark on the new project. At the time, Manong Rudy was a farmer and a rancher and Manang Judith was already working at the Capitol.

By the way, half of the seedlings planted on the land were produced by the family from their own nursery and the other half obtained from the DENR for free. That and the encouragement to plant trees was all the participation of the government in the growing of the 2.5 mahogany plantation.

Every February since 1995, Manong Rudy to protected his  investment and future fortune  from getting wiped out by grass fires which usually happen during the summer months  by separating the planted area through 7-meter wide firebreaks. Knowing that sometimes embers could be blown by the wind across the firebreaks even  that wide to start fires on the other side, the family and their workers are always on their toes day and night during the grass fire season just in case there is a need to fight fires. Manong Rudy recalls that there was one time when the firebreak and their vigilance proved no match to a grass fire and some 1,000 of the young trees which were then 10-12 feet were gobbled up by a fire. That’s about all that did not grow up to be real trees of the seedlings they planted as the mortality from other causes was very minimal.

When I asked Manong Rudy how much all in all he spent to grow his 2.5 hectare  mahogany plantation,   he said that it will not exceed P50,000.00. Perhaps he did not quantify  the regular installation of the firebreaks and the guard work they have to do during summers but I am sure that even if those were factored in, the amount would still be just a  drop in the see when compared to the how much the DENR spends to grow the same number of trees as there are in the Apil forest. I could bet that if you put together all the surviving trees in the numerous reforestation projects of the DENR in the province, they would not occupy 2.5 hectares. And to think that possibly, more than P100M has already been poured into the province to grow trees since the 90s.

In other words, when it comes to growing real trees, the Apil family with their estimated P100,000.00 has outdone the entire DENR workforce in the province with P100M at its  disposal.

Way back in the early 90s when I attacked their reforestation program accomplishments  in the provincial media, I was invited by the DENR officials so they could explain to me their side of the issue. One of the things they pointed out to me was that it was difficult to keep the plantations from getting burned during the hot summer months when a mere spark could create devastating grass fires. My answer to that now is if the Apils could guard their trees against fires, why not the government with all its resources?

Perhaps they will say that in the current reforestation program,  there is no provision for paying people to see to it that the plantations do not get burned especially when the trees are still small and very vulnerable to fires. By that, what they mean is the planners and decision-makers of the DENR are so stupid that after almost two decades of dismal failure in growing trees, they still have to learn their lessons that growing forests does not stop and end  with the planting of the seedlings because the harder part is ensuring that they should grow up into actual trees.  

Manong Rudy rues the fact that only a few paper trees around the hut where the man who got the contract for the reforestation of the Talaca, Agbannawag area remains of the reported P900,000.00 spent for the venture.  But that wasted money is nothing to all the DENR people in the province and perhaps in the whole country because the long and short of it is that they are more interested in something else than in grown up trees and watersheds.  

To bare to you the kind of lowdown characters I am talking about, Manong Rudy informed me that he heard from his farmhands that  there were several instances when the trees were  still young that some alleged DENR people took photos of  the plantation apparently to support claims for payments of  reforestation projects.  

And just to further prove to you that the DENR is not really serious about the reforestation program, they will never allow people who know how to grow trees like Manong Rudy and the orchard owners in the province to compete with them in the disposition of reforestation funds. They would rather let the Philippines remain denuded forever than share the money with people who know the task that they  being the implementors of the program are supposed to be well-versed in but in actuality are entirely stupid about.