Masungi Georeserve in Baras, Rizal on April 18, 2023. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News/File

MANILA — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has cancelled a 2002 agreement with development firm Blue Star Construction Development Corp. for use of a portion of a protected landscape in Rizal, a move that came with an order for Masungi Georeserve Foundation Inc, which runs the by now famous conservation area, to leave within 15 days.

At a briefing on the cancellation, DENR Assistant Secretary Norlito Eneran said the decision was made after the department "untangled the legal complications" in contracts the government had signed with Blue Star, which first entered into a Joint Venture Agreement with it in 1997.

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That deal was to build and develop 130.74 hectares in the area and deliver 5,000 housing units meant for government employees.

'LEGAL COMPLEXITIES'

Eneran said that Blue Star had not delivered and that was one of the bases for cancellation, along with a lack of a presidential proclamation to allow the use of another 300 hectares covered in the 2002 agreement that supplemented the 1997 one.

The georeserve is in that 300-hectare parcel, Lot 10.

Masungi said the delay in the original housing project was caused by DENR's failure to clear the land of illegal structures and developments, including private resorts. 

Eneran, citing a 2014 Commission on Audit report, said issues had been raised even then about a supposed lack of supporting documents for the project as well as Masungi collecting fees to enter the site and fencing off part of the property.

Masungi has maintained that the fees go to conservation efforts, including reforesting and rewilding the georeserve and that the fence was meant to keep quarrying and illegal logging out.

The DENR's cancellation is the latest step by the department, which announced in 2022 it was reviewing the contract with Blue Star for compliance with laws on protected areas and in light of an ancestral domain claim by a group of the Dumagat-Remontados indigenous people. 

Some residents of Barangay Pinugay in Baras, Rizal are also questioning the legality of the agreement, saying Masungi evicted them from their homes because of it, according to political scientist Dr. Antonio Contreras, who wrote about the issue in the Asia-Pacific Social Science Review in 2024.

Contreras notes that a separate 2017 memorandum of agreement for Masungi to manage 2,700 hectares in the watershed area has also raised questions on the constitutionality of "the perpetual nature of the land trust."

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Masungi, which counts environmentalists, members of the public, and Hollywood celebrities as supporters, has said their eviction would mean "the very gains we have fought for in conservation will be at grave risk, leaving only a carcass for greed to devour."

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MASUNGI: SETTLE ISSUES THROUGH DIALOGUE, OR IN COURT

Masungi has been calling for a dialogue, and has more than once invited Environment Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga to the park, and said as early as 2024 that its agreements with government are valid unless voided by a court.

"They have to go through the process of declaring it void ab initio, which is done through the courts," Billie Dumaliang, director for advocacy, said last July about the 2017 MOA.

She said then, and again this weekend, that private interests could have pushed DENR towards cancelling the 2002 agreement.

"Kasi kung technical issues talaga, legal issues or environmental issues ang dahilan hindi cancellation ang magiging track, ang magiging track is really dialogue, visiting the site and collaboration," she said last July.

(Because if it's just about technical, legal or environmental issues, the track would not be cancellation, but dialogue, visiting the site, and collaboration.)

Contreras, who advocated collaboration among Masungi and other claimants, warned against a unilateral cancellation by the DENR, pointing out that many of the issues raised "are justiciable issues for which only the courts can render final judgment."

It would also reflect poorly on the department, he said, saying DENR "will be seen as terminating an agreement with a known and multi- awarded environmental protector like MGFI, even as it now opens up the land for use by commercial resort owners."

Noting Masungi's "favorable ratings and vocal allies" among civil society organizations in the Philippines and abroad, as well as favorable media coverage of the project, Contreras said the move could erode DENR's credibility "not only locally but likely even internationally."

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SUPPORT TRICKLES IN

While Leonardo DiCaprio has yet to comment on the development, environmental groups have voiced support, with group Panatang Luntian saying "we must stand in support [of] organizations working to safeguard our forest ecosystems."

At least three lawmakers have also raised concerns with the cancellation, with Sen. Nancy Binay calling for a “win-win” solution to the dispute and a “cure” to legal issues DENR has raised.

Members of the Makabayan bloc at the House, meanwhile, have voiced suspicions that the the deal was cancelled to favor private interests.

ACT Teachers Party-List has also announced a plan to file a resolution for hearings on the agreement and its cancellation.

The Masungi foundation has hinted at "legal remedies" that are available to let it stay in the georeserve,.

It said Friday that it sees the DENR's move "is part of a larger, more insidious effort to weaken environmental protection, silence advocates, and clear the path for selfish commercial interests to exploit our natural resources" that would put the watershed at risk.

In a post attributed to Dumaliang, the foundation said it "will fight for Masungi with everything we have—just as we always have." 

She added: "And we are not alone."

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