Senate probe into alleged incidents of violence, land grabbing in Masungi Georeserve sought

Senator Risa Hontiveros is seeking an investigation into the reported incidents of violence, land grabbing, illegal logging, and quarrying affecting the Masungi Georeserve and the rest of the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape. 

In proposed Senate Resolution 231, Hontiveros, citing media reports, said that on September 19, more than 30 armed men, apparently employed by Sinagtala Security Agency Services, were encamped along the Marikina-Infanta Highway, within the vicinity of the Masungi conservation site.
 
The following day, Hontiveros said the Philippine National Police confiscated firearms from the group but declined to make any arrests.
 
The Masungi Georeserve Foundation Inc., its volunteers, and its employees have reportedly been threatened and harassed by groups allegedly involved in illegal quarrying, logging, and land-grabbing in the UMRBPL, which led to the shooting of two park rangers in 2021, the lawmaker stated.
 
"Incidents of armed violence and other illegal activities within the UMRBPL threaten not only the peace and order of Baras, Rizal but the biodiversity and integrity of the area's natural environment as well, which is home to over 400 species of flora and fauna, as well as the site of 60-million-year-old limestone formations," she said.
 
The Masungi Georeserve Foundation said private security personnel intended to occupy parts of the Kaliwa and Marikina Watershed.
 
They were also told that the security men were there to protect the interests of the people who had purchased the property.
 
The property that was being occupied at the Kaliwa and Marikina Watershed was allegedly legally titled to the Republic of the Philippines and declared a forest reserve under Presidential Proclamation 573.
 
According to a memorandum of agreement signed in 2017, the land was included in the 2,700 hectares being protected by the Masungi Georeserve Foundation and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
 
The DENR has the authority under the agreement to evict illegal occupants and cancel illegal documents claiming the right to occupy the land.
 
But based on the initial evaluation of the DENR, the property was outside the protected conservation site.
 
DENR Undersecretary Jonas Leones, however, clarified that the holder of a land survey did not automatically have a legal basis to claim the land. — VBL, GMA News