FOR 25 YEARS, Iloilo Province has been staging the Piyesta sa Kakahuyan, waving the banner of forest protection and celebrating environmental stewardship. Yet every heavy downpour tells a different story: swollen rivers, inundated homes, and millions lost to flood damage.
If forests are indeed “the best flood control project,” as Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. declared, then the real measure of leadership is not how long the festival lasts but how much forest cover has actually been restored.
The danger here is ritualism. Planting ceremonies with photo opportunities are not the same as reforestation. Tree-planting drives mean little if saplings are left to wither or if upland communities are not empowered to nurture them.
After a quarter of a century of festivals, Iloilo should be able to show hard numbers. How many hectares of forests have been revived? Has Iloilo’s biodiversity been restored? Have the floods been reduced? Anything less raises the uncomfortable question — is this truly environmental governance, or just environmental pageantry?
Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of pesos continue to be funnelled into seawalls and dikes, many of which have been exposed as defective, delayed, or abandoned, such as those in northern Iloilo as recently bared by Provincial Board member Rolex Suplico. That money could have been invested in regenerating natural defenses that cost less and protect more. Forests slow down rainwater, recharge aquifers, and shield lowland communities from flooding — benefits no hollow concrete wall can replicate when corruption and neglect hollow it out.
The province must also recognize that forest restoration is not just an environmental duty but an economic strategy. Properly managed social forestry programs can generate livelihoods, from sustainable timber and fruit harvests to eco-tourism ventures. Empowering upland communities to become stewards of the land ensures not only greener mountains but also stronger local economies that reduce pressure on forests in the first place.
If Tanom Iloilo for More Progress is to mean anything, it must move beyond slogans and into the realm of measurable, enforceable policy. That means budgets aligned with long-term reforestation, strict accountability for outcomes, and no tolerance for tokenism.
A province that treats environmental protection as ceremony will drown in its own inaction. A province that treats forests as lifelines will thrive. The choice rests squarely on political will.
