ANGARA: LET'S SAVE IFUGAO RICE TERRACES BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE

In a bid to preserve and bring back the natural grandeur of the Ifugao Rice Terraces, Senator Edgardo J. Angara has filed a bill seeking to formulate a 10-year Cordillera Terraces Master Plan for the preservation and restoration of the terraces in the region.

"The Ifugao Rice Terraces is known worldwide as the 8th Wonder of the Old World and the country's prime tourist destination. They are the living testament to the Ifugaos' mastery of watershed ecology, terrace engineering, and water distribution. Unfortunately, the condition of the terraces has continuously deteriorated," Angara said.

In 2001, it was placed in the World Heritage List in Danger. The Ifugao Rice Terraces and Cultural Heritage Office (IRTCHO) provided several factors causing the deterioration, namely: 1) loss of bio-diversity due to bio-piracy, unregulated hunting and indiscriminate use of new technology and introduction of new species; 2) reduced farm labor due to increasing out-migration of farm labor force; 3) erosion and siltation due to destruction of watershed; 4) Land use conversion and abandonment of rice terraces due to damaged rice terraces; 5) insufficient irrigation water supply, limited income from rice farming, shift in values and priorities of the people, unregulated land use and physical planning.

According to Angara, the major components of the 10-year Cordillera Terraces Master Plan are the restoration of the area's terraces, the protection and maintenance of ecological balance, the rehabilitation of the age-old irrigation systems and massive reforestation.

"This bill is a first step towards an overall terraces management and preservation strategy with the end in view of establishing a permanent, efficient, and effective body to coordinate and lead efforts to safeguard, restore, and protect the Terraces of the entire Cordillera Region," he said.

The Ifugao Rice Terraces significantly forms part of the Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordillera, whose terraces and culture were inscribed in the World Heritage list in December 1995 under the category "living cultural landscape" having both natural and cultural characteristics of outstanding universal significance.

"The terraces of the Cordilleras are truly a rare engineering achievement and the Philippines is racing, nay scrambling against time to save them from deterioration."