These fruit trees are in danger of dying

If Director Theresa Mundita Lim of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (DENR-PAWB) would have her way the fruit trees at the DENR-PAWB-DIZON Botanic Fruit Garden would wilt in no time. In a memo dated Jan. 12, 2005, Mundita ordered Bernardo Dizon to stop using water from a lagoon nearby in watering the fruit plants and to remove the water pump as she noted the decrease of the water level since December 2004.

Apparently, she does not know that in the memorandum of agreement (MOA) between then DENR Secretary Heherson Alvarez and Dizon who runs the DENR-PAWB-DIZON Botanic Fruit Garden signed on Sept. 25, 2002 with a duration of 20 years, it is stated that: "DENR shall provide an area approximately 4,000 square meters at Ninoy Parks and Wildlife Nature and shall be provided with free access to electricity and water source (meaning the lagoon) to the project. Says Dizon in his reply: "For the past 13 years of using the water in the lagoon, it never dries up despite the onset of El Niño every year."

Dizon is appealing to President Arroyo and DENR Secretary Michael Defensor to save the DENR-PAWB-Dizon Botanic Fruit Techno-Demo Center, the only techno-demo showcase of DENR in Metro Manila and in the whole country.

This is not the first time that Dizon is having some problems with DENR officials. Then DENR Secretary Antonio Cerilles declared Dizon’s agroforest project an eyesore and wanted fruit-bearing trees cut to put up a building in the area. Through the intervention of Sen. Edgardo Angara, the project was saved. Angara questioned the proliferation of buildings inside the park resulting in the cutting of trees.

In 1996 a DENR director ordered the destruction of 24 exotic trees worth P124,000 and erected buildings. In 1993, PAWB Director Corazon Singha terminated Dizon’s project for MOA violation of planting more than 500 square meters allocated to the project. The area in question consists of an abandoned waterlogged field where no trees survived. Through the intervention of now Vice President Noli de Castro (then Magandang Umaga host) Singha allowed the trees to grow which are now fruiting.

Director Wilfredo Pollisco sent Dizon violation notice threatening to terminate the MOA again for planting vacant areas.

DENR Secretary Victor Ramos amended the MOA, expanding Dizon’s fruit graden to cover 2,500 square meters. In Sept. 25, then DENR Secretary Heherson Alvarez granted Dizon additional area for the present 4,000 square meters which are now verdant with lush fruit trees.