Cabling Code to raise additional revenue of P25 million
By ROGER M. BALANZA
Large-scale banana plantations in conservation and agro-forestry areas of the watershed areas will be uprooted in three years as the Davao City Watershed Protection, Conservation and Management Plan sets into place strategies to protect its water resources.
Also known as the Watershed Code, the landmark measure authored by Councilor Arnolfo Ricardo Cabling, would start the countdown January next year as a Technical Working Group caps up formulation of a Management Plan for the city’s watershed areas, parts of which have been encroached into by large banana plantations.
This developed as City Hall formed the Watershed Management Council headed by Mayor Rodrigo Duterte to implement provisions of the Watershed Code which delineated the watershed areas into conservation, agro-industrial/non-tillage and prime land areas. Banana plantations would be banned in the first two critical areas where vital recharge points for the city aquifers are located.
The Watershed Code provides for a three-year phase out plan in the conservation and agro-forestry areas, with an added provision banning expansion by large banana plantations.
City administrator Wendel Avisado said the code would raise about P25 million in annual revenues from the Environmental Tax that would fund environmental protection programs in the watershed areas. The tax would be slapped on large-scale plantations of more than 50 hectares at P.25 per hectare.
Antonio Boquiren, technical assistant in the Office of the City Mayor, said barangays in the watershed areas would delineate the three area classifications to protect the critical and protected areas from agri-business encroachment.
Under the code, the city planning and development office has been tasked to conduct a survey of the barangays, to identify the large scale plantations covered by the Environmental Tax, which the city treasurer would start collecting next year.
The Watershed Management Council met two weeks ago and created the Technical Working Group which shall craft the General Framework and Management Plan of the Watershed Code.
Boquiren said he expects the Framework and Plan completed next month for the full implementation of the Watershed Code in January.
Filed under: CABLING ARNOLFO, Davao bananas, Watershed Code, davao city, watershed areas | Tagged: antonio boquiren, arnolco ricardo cabling, bananas, environmental tax, Watershed Code, wendel avisado
