Bill filed for declaration of 2 sites as protected areas

SENATOR CYNTHIA A. Villar filed measures to include two more sites — Mount Arayat in Pampanga and Hinakpam Mystical Hills Natural Monument in Negros Oriental — under the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS).

In a statement on Thursday, Ms. Villar, chair of the committee on environment and natural resources, said Mount Arayat is a “key biodiversity area” with endemic tree species like Arayat Pitogo and other rare flora such as tibig, molave and tumbang.

Hinakpam Mystical Hills Natural Monument, meanwhile, has unique biological features like geologic formation of karstic conical hills, caves, sinkholes and valleys.

There are currently 107 declared protected areas under Republic Act No. 7586 or the Expanded NIPAS Act of 2018, the senator said.

The law mandates the protection of “ecologically rich, unique and biologically important areas that are habitats of threatened species of plants and animals, biographic zones and related ecosystem, whether terrestrial, wetland or marine.”

Ms. Villar earlier filed five other bills to include more protected areas under the system. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas