DENR’s Yulo-Loyzaga to shut down Marikina watershed reforestation

Secretary Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga will expel forest conservationists from the Upper Marikina Watershed. She stated this at the very Senate inquiry Wednesday on the neglect of protected areas by her Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources.

Yulo-Loyzaga claimed that Masungi Georeserve Foundation’s 3,000-hectare reforestation is void from the start. Her predecessor, Gina Lopez (deceased), had expanded the watershed rewilding in 2017 after Masungi won world acclaim for environmentalism.

With no help from DENR, Masungi has been repulsing land grabbers, quarriers, illegal loggers and unlicensed swimming pool resorts. It hires 200 park rangers to rewild the watershed and prevent killer floods in cities below. Only the court, not a Cabinet appointee, can nullify a contract.

Also Wednesday, Senator Raffy Tulfo sought investigation of Yulo-Loyzaga’s conflict of interest in relation to her family’s 40,000-hectare ranch in Palawan. As reported in this column April 3, Yulo-Loyzaga’s family owns Yulo King Ranch that occupies the pasture reserve in Busuanga and Coron towns.

The 40,000-hectare public domain is ten times larger than Manila. President Marcos Sr. proclaimed in 1975 the Busuanga Pasture Reserve off limits to hunting, settlement, agriculture, commerce and industry. No portion may be sold or given away.

Both the 1992 National Integrated Protected Areas System and the 2018 Expanded NIPAS Acts affirm Proclamation 1387 and list the reserve among the initial coverages. President Noynoy Aquino assigned the vast protected area to the forestry bureau. President Rody Duterte proposed for agrarian reform a long-tenanted portion.

Yulo King Ranch came to possess the public land in 1976. Ten years later, the government sequestered YKR as owned by Marcos cronies Peter Sabido and Luis Yulo. The Sandiganbayan is still hearing Case No. 0024 against YKR.

When Luis Yulo and spouse passed away, six of nine offspring continued contesting the government sequestration. A Manila court designated Yulo-Loyzaga as executor-administrator of the family estate.

As such, she defends the Yulo family’s private interest. Yet DENR secretaryship requires her to enforce environment laws, including