MANILA (UPDATE) — A person who works for Masungi Georeserve in Rizal province on Saturday said the fences recently put up by armed men in the area were illegal.

Billie Dumaliang, a trustee and designated advocacy officer at the eco-tourism site, said the area is protected by law and therefore cannot be anyone’s private property.

The barriers, set up in a portion of the georeserve’s restoration project, blocked authorized Masungi personnel from accessing about 1,000 hectares of land, Dumaliang added.

“We’ve been monitoring [the situation] very closely in the past few months because of increased illegal activities,” she told ABS-CBN News.

“We’ve increased the protection measures to make sure illegal activities are stopped . . . Parang intimidation iyon sa amin ng kung ano’ng kaya nilang gawin. It’s a protected area, this forest so no one can claim this as private property.”

(It was like a form of intimidation. They wanted to show us what they are capable of.)

According to Dumaliang, the guards could not show a land title, a permit or a document authorizing them to install the fences.

LOOK: A portion of Masungi Georeserve's restoration proj. was fenced by at least 5 armed men working for an alleged renewable energy company Friday, blocking the conservation area's authorized personnel from accessing the site, a site officer told @ABSCBNNews. pic.twitter.com/jMIr5OGhYO

— Job Manahan (@jobmanahan) October 24, 2020

In a video Dumaliang shared to ABS-CBN News, the men said they worked purportedly for a renewable energy company.

As of posting time, ABS-CBN News was verifying who ordered the men to carry out the task.

“Pumunta kami doon to clean... [for] reforestation and planting tapos biglang, ‘Ano ito, sino kayo? Ano ginagawa niyo dito?’ ” Dumaliang said.

(We were there to clean, do reforestation and planting, and all of a sudden, ‘What is this, who are you, what are you doing here?’)

“Because we’re managers of the areas, we asked them to show documents . . . They could not show any title.

“That raises a lot of questions on ano iyong ginagawa nila doon sa area.”

On Facebook Friday, Dumaliang and her group aired a similar complaint, saying a wildlife sanctuary cannot be owned by a private entity.

“The site is part the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape (Proc. 296) which can NEVER be any person or any company's private property, as it is a protected area and wildlife sanctuary. It has been protected by various laws since 1904 as a critical watershed,” a statement posted on the Masungi Facebook account said.

Masungi is an award-winning conservation project that has become a popular eco-tourism site in Baras town, Rizal. Alongside eco-tourism efforts, the group behind it continues to reforest areas made barren by illegal logging and quarrying.

• LOOK: Flower that towers over 8 feet spotted in Masungi Georeserve

This was the second time this year that fences were put up at Masungi.

In late February, the conservation site reported that a portion of its reforestation area was blocked by a quarry company.

• LOOK: Quarry operations in Rizal affect reforestation efforts of conservation park
• Pag-operate ng mining companies sa Masungi geopark pinaiimbestigahan

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