Forest fires burn 56.4 hectares

By MindaNews

MALAYBALAY CIity – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) reported at least 16 forest fires across Bukidnon during the height of the dry season, burning an estimated 125.49 hectares, including about 56.4 hectares of National Greening Program (NGP) reforestation areas, based on consolidated data as of April 30, 2026.

DENR’s Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office’s report covered incidents which were monitored under the areas of four Community Environment and Natural Resources Offices (CENROs) and two Protected Area Management Offices (PAMOs).

Fires hit timberlands, grasslands, reforestation sites, coconut plantations, and protected forest zones in several municipalities and cities across the province.

Areas under CENRO Valencia accounted for about 67 percent or 84.04 hectares of the total area affected by the fires.

The DENR report identified 49.93 hectares to be under NGP projects.

NGP-funded projects

Among the notable incidents recorded under CENRO Valencia was the fire in Sitio Kauswagan, Barangay Candelaria, San Fernando on March 22, 2026 which burned more than 26 hectares for still unknown reasons as of the report’s release. The DENR identified 24.49 hectares of the affected area to be part of NGP.

“The government has already considered the project completed under the NGP project. DENR has already turned it over to the concerned LGU. Further, the DENR report said they have already advised LGU San Fernando to conduct maintenance and restoration activities.

The NGP, launched by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in 2011, aims to restore degraded forestlands, mitigate climate change, and support upland and Indigenous communities. Expanded in 2015 into the Enhanced National Greening Program (ENGP), it continues rehabilitation efforts through 2028.

The report cited another fire on the same date in Sitio Spring, Barangay Cawayan, San Fernando affecting 15.2 hectares. DENR identified 4.62 hectares of the area as NGP areas.

In Mt. Alig, Dagumbaan, Maramag, a separate fire on April 15 burned about 20.83 hectares, with the entire affected area identified as an NGP site.

The CENRO reported they have already advised an unnamed people’s organization managing the Maramag site to conduct maintenance and restoration activities in the affected area.

All three incidents affected grassland and NGP rehabilitation sites, with causes listed as unknown and severity levels categorized as moderate.

Data from MalaybalayCity

CENRO Valencia also reported additional fire incidents monitored in Malaybalay City. In Kibalabag, fires burned a total of 20 hectares of grassland on April 20 with the cause listed as unknown and severity classified as moderate. On April 16, another fire affected about 1.8 hectares of forestland and alienable and disposable land in Kalasungay.

In the same barangay on April 22, fire also reached a reforestation site identified as an experimental forest of the DENR’s Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau (ERDB).

The report did not specify the area affected or the cause of the fire.

The DENR-PENRO data is separate from an earlier Malaybalay City Environment and Natural Resources Office (City ENRO) report, which recorded 33 forest fire incidents across eight barangays in the city from February to April 15, 2026, damaging an estimated 133.1 hectares.

City ENRO data identified Barangay Can-ayan as the hardest-hit area, recording 10 incidents and about 53.1 hectares of burned areas, accounting for around 40 percent of the total affected land in the city. The fires also reportedly damaged around 390 trees, the highest among all barangays monitored.

Pasture regeneration?

CENRO Manolo Fortich accounted for about 21 percent of the total burned areas, recording six forest fire incidents in April 2026 that affected an estimated 26 hectares of timberland, grassland, and NGP rehabilitation sites, mostly in upland communities of Impasug-ong town.

The largest forest fire incident under CENRO MF hit Sayawan, Impasug-ong on April 3, burning around 12 hectares of grassland within a timberland classification. The report alleged that people set the area on fire “for pasture regeneration.”

Two more incidents hit Kapitan Bayong, Impasug-ong on April 14 and April 16, burning a combined 6.8 hectares of grassland timberland.

The first incident in Zone 8 burned around 3.2 hectares, while the second affected another 3.6 hectares. The report also linked both fires to alleged pasture regeneration activities.

In Kibuwa, Impalutao, Impasug-ong, another fire on April 18 damaged around five hectares of an NGP rehabilitation area.

Meanwhile, fire burned about 0.7 hectare of grassland timberland in Nasandigan, Kalabugao, Impasug-ong on April 16, while another fire in Kalampigan, Kalabugao on April 22 affected around 1.5 hectares of an NGP site. The report listed the causes of both incidents as unknown.

The data showed that people allegedly burned at least 18.8 hectares of affected areas under CENRO Manolo Fortich for pasture regeneration, highlighting recurring concerns over land management and fire control practices during the dry season. Two incidents affecting a combined 6.5 hectares struck NGP rehabilitation areas, raising concerns over the vulnerability of government reforestation efforts to forest fires.

Response operations across the six incidents involved a total deployment of 19 personnel, with responders ranging from two to five personnel depending on the scale and location of the fires.

CENRO Don Carlos and CENRO Talakag both reported less than a hectare of forest fires as of April 2026.

Protected areas

Beyond timberlands and reforestation sites, fires also reached protected mountain ecosystems in Bukidnon.

One of the major incidents hit areas in Barangay Basac, Lantapan within the protected area and multiple-use zone of Mt. Kitanglad Range Natural Park. The fire affected around 13.86 hectares of grassland, cultivated areas, and open forest between April 17 and 22. The report classified the incident under an “alarming/serious” severity level and listed the cause as a “natural occurrence.” Authorities deployed 11 personnel during the response operations.

The report noted that most affected portions of the protected area were located adjacent to cultivated farmlands. In response, the Protected Area Management Office said it would intensify Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) campaigns and strengthen fire suppression efforts among barangay officials, Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representatives (IPMRs), and local communities in the area.

Protected Area Superintendent Roy Aguanta also reported an estimated one-hectare grassfire in Barangay Miarayon, Talakag that burned on April 11 and was reported on April 13 under the jurisdiction of the Protected Area Management Office (PAMO) of Mt. Kalatungan Range Natural Park.

The DENR consolidated report showed that several incidents remained under “unknown” causes, underscoring the challenge of monitoring fires across vast upland and forested areas during prolonged dry weather conditions.

Personnel deployment during response operations ranged from two to 15 responders depending on the severity and location of the fires.

The consolidated report formed part of the provincial government’s broader disaster risk reduction and management efforts amid anticipated impacts of El Niño and prolonged dry conditions.

This reporter obtained a copy of the DENR consolidated report from the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO).

In its request letter dated April 24, the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office said the data would serve as “critical input in risk assessment, contingency planning, and the development of appropriate preparedness and mitigation measures for the province.”

Klaus Doring

May inflation may hit new 3-yr high of 7.9%

 

BY NYAH GENELLE C. DE LEON

JUNE 1, 2026

GRAPHICS BY INQUIRER PLUS GRAPHICS/FAITH HINOJOSA

Philippine inflation likely climbed further in May, surpassing the previous month’s three-year high as the spillover effects from the Middle East war continued to intensify food price pressures and weaken the peso.

According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), consumer prices likely rose between 7.1 percent and 7.9 percent in May, accelerating from the 7.2 percent recorded in April.

The war, now in its third month, has yet to show signs of de-escalation. Although domestic pump prices finally began to ease, the relief was likely insufficient to temper broader pressures.

Major rollback in petroleum product prices

 Major rollback in petroleum product prices is expected to motorists effective 6:00 am tomorrow, June 2, 2026 (Tuesday).

According to oil companies' notice, DIESEL will go up to P8-P9/L, GASOLINE will go down to P5-P6/L will rollback while KEROSENE, it will go down toP9-10/L.

All reactions:

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Bread of salt

Teresa Hilis

When sugar and protein react and the Maillard reaction takes over in the magical melding of flavors, once sticky beige blobs turn into browned mounds of goodness, great for sweet and savory spreads. Waking up to the aroma of freshly baked pandesal might just be someone else’s definition of an ideal morning, but I had my fair share of embittered bouts with the bread of salt as someone who lived in a bakery, that coming to the tang of it slithering through my nostrils brings dread more than zest.

Growing up, our household rarely clapped the lights out before midnight. My mother would do the dinner dishes and last-minute meal prep for tomorrow’s breakfast and lunch while waiting for my father to arrive. My siblings and I would build forts from frayed blankets, stained bedsheets, and pillows heavier than all our weights combined. Amid such childish chaos, my father would arrive. In his hands were four small brown bags, each with exactly two pieces of malunggay pandesal, so that no childish bickering would transpire. We looked past his bloodshot eyes and slouched shoulders, and we savored the tasty treat without regard for the slight shiver of the man’s calloused hands. My mother, refusing to take a bite, saying she already brushed her teeth, would busy herself with ironing all of our uniforms, including my father’s old polo, as we ate. Midnight after midnight, this was our routine. Until 2017, when he was let go from work due to a mass layoff.

Once a clerk in an air-conditioned office, now a baker who stands in front of the blazing heat of the oven all day to cook rolls of dough. Every day of their lives since 2017, they wake up at 3 a.m., their backs do not so much as touch their thinly cushioned bed until 9 p.m.

The worst part is the inescapable fact that every kid of a Filipino small business owner would understand: tending the shop is part of the deal.

For a bakery like ours, it meant more than handing out the bread, receiving payment, and giving change. It also meant taking care of small tasks: preparing the baking sheets, helping with pagpipigura (shaping) and pagkakamada (organizing) of the small cuts of dough, and coating everything with fine bread crumbs to avoid sticking. All of which were, to an extent, enjoyable except for the part where I had to stand near a hot commercial oven.

Perhaps it is enticing when imagined: being the first to smell the aroma of freshly baked pandesal just when the town is rising from its solemn slumbers. It is often forgotten that baking uses dry heat to transform batter into cake and dough into bread. Browning against the crust yet searing against the skin.

Once in the middle of a Sunday morning rush, waves of customers from a nearby church poured in. My parents were out delivering to regulars a few houses away. No pandesal was warm enough to serve and the customers had a strong preference for maputi (without a toasted crust). In batches and finally all at once, they all demanded the same thing.

Taking shortcuts like the lazy kid that I was, I cranked up the oven valve to heat up the pandesal as quickly as I could. Day after day, since we opened shop, I had always found ways to make things easier and never did I ever burn pandesal. Even if I dozed off for a moment, even if I took quick bathroom breaks between batches, I never burned bread, so it was out of what I thought to be the realm of possibilities. Only increasing the flame to extreme levels without care. How was I to know that bread burns when blazed with high flames?

Needless to say, customers left without their brown bags of pandesal and with a thousand apologies from my parents, who returned briefly after the fact. I remember vividly to this day how the silence between my parents and me lingered throughout the day. How, as my father let out the smoke from the oven and the curses from under his breath, my mother burnt her hands trying to inspect the burnt batch for any survivors. There was the stench of seething in the air tussling with the burnt fumes. There was no exchange of words between me and my parents about the incident. Another Sunday for our household, only with way fewer bakery sales than usual.

It took a few years to realize what that loss meant to a home business like us. It took a few years to understand why my parents reacted that way. I expected some reproach, yet received none. Looking back, perhaps I should have insisted on some sort of corporal punishment, as it was easier to overcome physical wounds than to get rid of the guilt in the pit in my stomach.

Those sticky beige blobs and browned mounds of goodness kept the lights on and carried us through difficult times. And while the magical transformation of the aromatic bread of salt may have brought more bitterness than sweetness, now I revisit this old memory with warmth.

Borongan swelters in 52 Celsius heat index

 

Josiah Antonio - The Philippine Star 

June 1, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — Extreme danger heat index was recorded in Borongan, Eastern Samar at 52 degrees Celsius on Saturday, data from the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration showed.

The extreme label is the highest level in the heat index chart, starting from 52 degrees Celsius.

PAGASA warned that heat stroke is possible at this level.

Saturday’s record is the highest heat index recorded in the country this year and the first time a locality recorded a heat index at the extreme danger level.

According to the weather bureau, the localities that recorded 45 degrees on Saturday were Casiguran in Aurora, Infanta in Quezon and Hinatuan in Surigao del Sur.

Baler, Aurora and Cavite City followed at 44 degrees.

Tornado hits Quezon coastal village

By Danny Estacio

Published May 31, 2026 05:08 pm

INFANTA, Quezon – Several houses and boats were damaged by a tornado in coastal Barangay Libjo here on Friday.

The tornado was caught on video.

The Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office and the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office will conduct a damage assessment and provide immediate assistance to affected families.

The area, along with Burdeos town on Polillo Island, Quezon province, experienced severe weather due to typhoon “Domeng” which is on its way out of the country.

Residents said this was the first time they experienced a tornado. No deaths or injuries were reported.

Meanwhile, a 44-year-old man was struck and killed by an ambulance in Barangay Muliguin, Unisan, Quezon on Friday night.

Police said the victim was crossing the road when he was accidentally hit by the ambulance driven by a 30-year-old man.

The victim was taken to a hospital where he was declared dead. The driver was arrested and a nurse in the vehicle assisted in rescuing the victim.