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Friday, March 29, 2024

Tribal Town Stripped Of Trees Turns Mountains Green Again

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Davao del Norte – In the Pantaron Mountain Range between the provinces of Davao del Norte and Bukidnon is a tribal town which serves as a painful reminder of how tribal lands were stripped bare of forests trees by logging companies owned by the rich and powerful then abandoned leaving behind an impoverished people.

Talaingod, Davao del Norte created as a town in 1991 has an area of 74,000-hectares with a population of only 27,000 living in only three barangays, majority of them Ata-Manobo tribesmen with a poverty incidence of 56.4%.

When the logging company, C. Alcantara and Sons (ALSONS) which operated in the area for decades pulled out in the early the late 1990s, the Communist New People’s Army exploited the tribal people’s anger and penetrated the area, establishing the controversial Salugpongan Schools.

It took an elderly tribal chieftain, Datu Guibang Apoga, who organized the Ata-Manobo tribesmen to resist the encroachment of ALSONS into their tribal lands, to get the attention of government to their plight.

Freeing the town from the grip of the New People’s Army did not come easy as it took the sacrifices of many lives, among them the former mayor of the town, Datu Jose Libayao.

Now led by one of Datu Jose Libayao’s son, Mayor Joel Libayao, Talaingod town is literally starting to pick up the broken pieces and attempts to rebuild the town by bringing the trees back to the mountains.

Supported by Davao del Norte Governor Edwin Jubahib, a former bus conductor who scored a stunning political upset in Davao del Norte in 2019, Mayor Libayao, with the support of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, leads the planting of endemic species like Narra, Molave and Dao in the mountains.

High-value vegetable farming has also been introduced to tribal families who are now selling their produce to high-end establishments in Tagum City and Davao City.

Mayor Libayao, with the help of Gov. Jubahib, is developing the tourism potentials of the town starting with the Uraya Peak, a high point near the highway which connects Talaingod to San Fernando town in Bukidnon.

From the Uraya Peak, tourists could see the vast span of Davao del Norte, including the Island Garden City of Samal across the Davao Channel.

The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) will support this undertaking by introducing the Green Mindanao Project, a family-based tree farming program with high-value crops as intercrop.

The program will involve a financing package from the Development Bank of the Philippines which could be extended to either the Provincial or Municipal Government to establish nurseries and fund livelihood programs such as high value vegetable farming.

An off-taker of the lumber produced from the tree farms will also be engaged to ensure the sustainability of the Green Mindanao project.
(Mindanao Development Authority/ Fel Vin Matabalan, OIC Michael Manguhig, RPN DXKT Davao)

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