A QUEZON tree – under whose thick verdant foliage the President of the Philippine Commonwealth sat, filling with fresh mountain air his tubercular lungs – used to stand at the Mount Arayat National Park.
At the park – sited in the appropriately named barrio of San Juan Bano – the President immersed himself in gurgling cool, cool spring waters from a small falls under a canopy of towering teak, narra and acacia trees, the cares of the state washed away.
A Quezon Road conveyed the President to the park from the national road at the junction in San Simon town.
No stuffs of legend there but vignettes of history. Attesting to the popularity of the Mount Arayat National Park as a haven of healing, as sanctuary for the weak and weary.
Popularity lost through the years with the unabated deforestation – logging, kaingin, charcoal-making, the deterioration of peace and order, and the occupancy of the park by informal settlers.
How Don Manuel Luis Quezon would have turned in his grave with the degradation of his beloved park. Unlike the MacArthur Park of song, the Mount Arayat National Park did not melt in the dark. It was despoiled of its very essence in broad daylight.
Attempts to rehabilitate the Mount Arayat National Park have not been wanting, though far, too far, in-between.
If fading memory served right, the park came under the administrative supervision of the provincial government at the time of Gov. Estelito P. Mendoza.
I distinctly remember a Governor’s Cabin along with some buildings was constructed there during Gov. Bren Z. Guiao’s Capitol watch.
Gov. Lito Lapid used that same cabin for his first official meeting with the provincial board led by Vice Gov. Cielo Macapagal-Salgado in 1995. I should know, I was there as Lapid’s spinmeister then.
At one time or the other, the Department of Tourism, the municipal government of Arayat and the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources held sway over Mount Arayat National Park.
When the provincial quarry operations were handled by the DENR’s Natural Resources Development Corp. in the aftermath of Lapid’s suspension by the Ombudsman, part of the collections was infused to the park for its rehabilitation.
But for a bronze marker – bearing the signature of DENR Secretary Antonio Cerilles – screwed on a large rock near the entrance there is not the slightest trace today of any development undertaken there.
For the record, the NRDC collected a total of P382,580,900 in quarry fees from 1999 to 2001.
In 2009, the dilapidated buildings at the park provided a refuge to families whose homes were buried in a landslide brought about by the heavy rains spawned by Typhoon Ondoy.
The families have since been relocated to a nearby temporary site just outside the immediate hazard area delineated by the DENR. The bunkhouses put up by Gov. Lilia G. Pineda.
Notwithstanding the current dilapidated state of the park, the governor is keen on its potential as a vibrant eco-tourism destination. Arguably, even better than the eco-nature park she set up in the highlands of Nabuclod in Floridablanca centered on a zipline and cable cars.
Aside from its mountain trails and remaining clumps of hardwood trees, the Mount Arayat National Park still has its springs and waterfalls, of which Nabuclod is nada.
Off hand, Gov. Pineda expressed interest in rehabilitating the run-down facilities at the park including the swimming pools, cottages and kiosks, function hall, the administrative building, the parking areas.
Toward this end, she has initiated talks with the DENR for management sharing of the park, or better yet, for its turn-over to the provincial government.
Says Gov: “Mount Arayat is a symbol of Pampanga. As a Kapampangan and as governor, I have committed myself to bring it back to its glory, to its majesty, worthy of the pride of our people. With your help, we can do it.”
I’ve been around some eco parks. A rehabilitated, reforested Mount Arayat will most surely give the Kinabalu National Park in Sabah, Irawan Eco Park in Puerto Princesa, and Eden Nature Park in Davao a run for their nature trippers and tourists.
As mother knows best, give the Mount Arayat National Park to Nanay.
