Sibuyan natural park pushed by Loren

Sen. Loren Legarda has filed a bill seeking to establish a sprawling natural park in Mount Guiting-Guiting in Sibuyan Island, Romblon province.

Legarda wants the proposed Mt. Guiting-Guiting Natural Park established by an act of Congress, and instantly declared a protected area.

The proposed natural park shall cover some 15,475 hectares and span 15 barangays in the municipalities of Magdiwang, Cajidiocan and San Fernando, all in Sibuyan.

In Senate Bill 1798, Legarda stressed the need for Congress to "to guard and protect Mt. Guiting-Guiting's unique bio-diversity as well as its aesthetic and ecological value."

Mt. Guiting-Guiting is home to fascinating endemic flora and fauna. These include four species of rodents and a kind of bat discovered only in the mid-1990s and found nowhere else in the world.

With an elevation of 2,058 meters, the mountain dominates the Sibuyan landscape. The mountain sustains the lives of, and is mythic symbol to the more than 50,000 residents of the 47,745-hectare island.

Mt. Guiting-Guiting is also home to many threatened species, including the Philippine tube-nosed bat, previously known to originate only from Negros.

About half of the island remains covered with mangrove and mossy forests. The island's lowland forest is known to be the densest in the country in terms of species diversity, being the habitat of up to 54 endemic plant varieties.

The proposed natural park is expected to promote low-impact recreation and tourism that would, in turn, heighten public awareness of the need to preserve the environment, according to Legarda.

Legarda served as chairperson of the Senate committee on environment and natural resources as well as the Senate committee on tourism in the 12th Congress.

The senator filed her bill not long after San Fernando municipal councilor Armin Marin was shot dead by an employee of Sibuyan Nickel Properties Development Corp., a firm exploring in the island for the hard, silvery white metal used to make stainless steel.

The killing of Marin, 42, a known pro-environment crusader, took place during a picket staged in Barangay España, San Fernando by hundreds of residents opposed to mining activities in their communities.

from: Senate of the Philippines Press Release
February 3, 2008