CEBU CITY, Philippines — Actual forest occupants within Central Cebu Protected Landscape (CCPL)’s 504-reforestation project in Barangays Cantipla and Tabunan in this city were recently organized to police, maintain and protect the said area.

The said land, which is the subject of a Memorandum of Agrreement between the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and retired General Tiburcio Fusilero, has been reported to have illegal squatters which could likely be responsible for forest fires, illegal resource extraction, expansion of farm lots and other destructive activities in the area.

DENR 7 Regional Executive Director Maximo Dichoso has met with 22 tenured migrants and new forest occupants with a purpose to streamline the list of farmer-occupants living in the reforestation site located within the protected area.

Dichoso said he would also seek a dialogue between the claimants and the City Assessor’s Office to address the problem of illegal squatters in the area because from the 12 identified families in the area has now reached 100.

He noted that a number of families within the protected area are under the belief that they already own the land because of the tax declaration papers in their possession although such document is clearly not a title to the land they occupy.

“No other tenurial instrument is legally recognized by the DENR other than that in the hands of Gen. Fusilero. The tax declaration is not a tenurial instrument,” Dichoso explained.

Fusilero himself admitted that there are farmers who claim and have sold large parcels of land within the protected area, where full-grown trees were illegally cut.

He added that as much as 60,000 seedlings were planted in the land this year but 30 hectares of the total covered area were destroyed or uprooted by some farmers.

The retired general further reported that buying and selling of lots started way back in 2003 when a road was built within his reforestation project.

On the other hand, farmers within the area allege that no consultation with them was conducted when Fusilero tried to develop the area and that some of them have been threatened and harassed.

To resolve the issue, Dichoso has instructed the Protected Area and Wildlife Conservation Zone Management Services to conduct a thorough assessment of actual tenured migrants based on available Protected Area Sustainability Assessment (PASA) records.

PASA includes location, topography, land use, potential for tourism services, industries, natural features, hydrology, vegetative cover, flora and fauna, and cultural practices or uniqueness.

Moreover, the CCPL under Republic Act No. 9486 issued last June 7, 2007 covers a consolidated area of 28,312 hectares consisting of the Buhisan Watershed Forest Reserve, Mananga Watershed Forest Reserve, Sudlon National Park, Central Cebu National Park and the Kotkot-Lusaran Watershed Forest Reserve in the cities of Cebu, Talisay, Toledo and Danao, and in the towns of Minglanilla, Consolacion, Liloan, Compostela, and Balamban.