Fire started at Apo’s peak: Digos exec

By Carolyn Arguillas

KAPATAGAN, Davao del Sur–The still raging forest fire in the country’s highest peak, Mt. Apo, started as a grassfire at the common camping area at the peak Saturday noon when most of the climbers had gone down from the Holy Week trek, Digos City tourism officer Edgardo  Elera said.

Elera said members of the city’s monitoring team who were at the peak tried to put out the fire but it quickly spread as the grass had dried up due to the drought.

“We cannot say kung accident or deliberate… Maybe somebody threw a cigarette butt,” he said.  But he maintained that the local governments had not been remiss in reminding trekkers especially since there is already a unified trekking policy approved by the Mt. Apo Natural Park-Protected Area Management Board (MANP-PAMB) last year and implemented in the Digos, Sta. Cruz and Bansalan trails in Davao del Sur and Kidapawan, Makilala and Magpet trails in North Cotabato.

“There’s a very high possibility that trekkers caused the fire,” Joey Recemilla, Kidapawan Tourism Officer and chair of the Ecotourism Committee  of the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) said.

He said the Holy Week trek, like last year’s, was limited to only 1,000 climbers for all six trails because of the drought but in last week’s climb, the number of climbers exceeded the quota for some trails.

Comprising 54,974.87 hectares, Mt. Apo Natural Park is one of the Key Biodiversity Areas of the country. Mt. Apo, which has an elevation of 9,692 feet (2,954 meters above sea level), is classified by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) as a “potentially active” volcano. (carolyn arguillas)