Hundreds of families belonging to the Dumagat tribe lambasted the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for its failure to protect the Upper Marikina River Protected Landscape and their ancestral domain from land grabbers masquerading as environmental advocates.

Alex Bendaña, chieftain of the Dumagat-Remontado group in Sitio San Ysiro, Barangay San Jose, Antipolo City, expressed fear over what he claimed as an aggressive effort to shoo them away from their “home” in view of moves to abolish the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act.

“We heard that someone at Congress is pushing to abolish IPRA... that is the only law that shields indigenous people and then they will remove it,” Bendaña said.

When asked as to what particular area they are concerned with, the Dumagat-Remontado chieftain hinted at the 13,000 hectares of ancestral domain adjacent the Marikina Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape.

Bendaña pointed at large structures constructed well within both protected areas — the watershed and their domain, raising suspicion of a DENR sell-out.

“It’s really surprising how the owners of the huge mansions and other structures within the protected area got clearance from the DENR,” Bendaña said.

He cited the need for an honest-to-goodness implementation of existing laws — including IPRA and Presidential Decree 324, which segregated portions of the watershed for agroforestry.

A check on the records showed that the UMRPL alone accounts for 26,126 hectares. However, continued forest and habitat degradation, caused mainly by illegal tree cutting, construction of residential subdivisions and establishment of commercial establishments effectively reduced the watershed area by at least 408 hectares a year.

As for the Dumagat-Remontado ancestral domain, the group said that their area has been slashed by more than half following the memorandum of aggreement entered into by the late DENR Secretary Gina Lopez with the Blue Star Construction and Development Corporation (later renamed as Masungi Georeserve) in 2017.